Authors Say We Should “Forget the Alamo”

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A new book on the history of the Alamo says we have been telling the wrong version of the story for over 200 years.

“Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth” is a new book by authors Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford.

In a story on Yahoo News, Burrough says the facts we have been told about the battle are probably wrong.

William Travis never drew any line in the sand; this was a tale concocted by an amateur historian in the late 1800s. There is no evidence Davy Crockett went down fighting, as John Wayne famously did in his 1960 movie The Alamo, a font of misinformation; there is ample testimony from Mexican soldiers that Crockett surrendered and was executed.

In the article, Burrough goes on to say the battle of the Alamo has been looked at as a war pitting Anglos against those of Mexican descent, but that Mexican-American history is distorted by an Alamo myth that the battle was about American colonists who were “oppressed” and revolted for their “freedom”.

Through research he claims academics have “tiptoed” around the issue of slavery.

Stephen F. Austin, the so-called “Father of Texas,” spent years jousting with the Mexico City bureaucracy over the necessity of enslaved labor to the Texas economy. “Nothing is wanted but money,” he wrote in a pair of 1832 letters, “and Negros are necessary to make it.” Each time a Mexican government threatened to outlaw slavery, many in Austin’s colony began packing to go home. In time, as we know now, they put away their suitcases and brought out their guns.

So what do you think about "Forget the Alamo"? What about the views being pushed by publishing the book? Let us know on Facebook or chat with us on our station app.