By 1900, the tale of the 300 Texians who died in the 1836 battle of the Alamo had already become legend. But to corporate interests in the growing City of San Antonio, the land where that blood was shed was merely a desirable plot of land across the street from new restaurants and hotels, with only a few remaining crumbling buildings to tell the tale. When two women, Adina Emilia De Zavala, the granddaughter of the first vice-president of the Texas Republic, and Clara Driscoll, the daughter of one of Texas’s most prominent ranch families and first bankers, learned of the plans, they hatched a plan to preserve the site—and in doing so, they reinvigorated both the legend and lore of the Alamo and cemented the site’s status as hallowed ground. These two strong-willed, pioneering women were very different, but the story of how they banded together and how the Alamo became what it is today despite those differences, is compelling reading for those interested in Texas history and Texas’s larger-than-life personality.

Forgotten Futures, Colonized Pasts traces the existence of a now largely forgotten history of inter-American alliance-making, transnational community formation, and intercultural collaboration between Mexican and Anglo American elites. This communion between elites was often based upon Mexican elites’ own acceptance and reestablishment of problematic socioeconomic, cultural, and ethno-racial hierarchies that placed them above other groups—the poor, working class, indigenous, or Afro-Mexicans, for example—within their own larger community of Greater Mexico. Using close readings of literary texts, such as novels, diaries, letters, newspapers, political essays, and travel narratives produced by nineteenth-century writers from Greater Mexico, Forgotten Futures, Colonized Pasts brings to light the forgotten imaginings of how elite Mexicans and Mexican Americans defined themselves and their relationship with Spain, Mexico, the United States, and Anglo America in the nineteenth century. These “lost” discourses—long ago written out of official national narratives and discarded as unrealized or impossible avenues for identity and nation formation—reveal the rifts, fractures, violence, and internal colonizations that are a foundational, but little recognized, part of the history and culture of Greater Mexico. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

"Examines how different groups of Americans have competed to control, define, and own cherished national stories relating to events at four battlefields."--Amazon.com.

A New York Times bestseller! “Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review "Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal “Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.

After two short weeks under siege, the climactic battle of the Alamo lasted under an hour, but its aftermath spawned a legend. The Alamo: A Cultural History explores the transformation of the fort from its 1718 inception as a Franciscan mission to its current status as a tourist attraction, historical monument, and international symbol of freedom.

First published in 2000, J. R. Edmondson's The Alamo Story: From Early History to Current Conflicts thoroughly examines the famous "Shrine of Texas Liberty" from its origin as a Spanish New World mission to its modern status. It has been lauded as the “best" and "most readable” of all historical accounts devoted to the legendary mission-fortress. The original edition has been celebrated for over twenty years for its comprehensive approach to Alamo scholarship and for presenting the famous battle in the context of both American and Mexican history. This second edition of The Alamo Story includes new information about the battle and those involved, including expanded stories on the roles of minorities and some illustrations by noted artist Mark Lemon. The book also features a new chapter on Benjamin Rush Milam's assault on San Antonio with only three hundred Texians, the battle that set the stage for the siege of the Alamo less than three months later. And there is an extensive epilogue on the present-day conflicts about the physical Alamo compound, as historic preservationists clash with political and popular opinions in San Antonio.

Now part of the HBO docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes, written and directed by Raoul Peck The 20th anniversary edition of a pioneering classic that explores the contexts in which history is produced—now with a new foreword by renowned scholar Hazel Carby Placing the West’s failure to acknowledge the Haitian Revolution—the most successful slave revolt in history—alongside denials of the Holocaust and the debate over the Alamo, Michel-Rolph Trouillot offers a stunning meditation on how power operates in the making and recording of history. This modern classic resides at the intersection of history, anthropology, Caribbean, African-American, and post-colonial studies, and has become a staple in college classrooms around the country. In a new foreword, Hazel Carby explains the book’s enduring importance to these fields of study and introduces a new generation of readers to Trouillot’s brilliant analysis of power and history’s silences.

This study explores the multiple histories and mythologies of San Antonio’s famous Spanish mission and Texas Revolution battle site. The Alamo Mission still evokes tremendous feeling among many Americans, and especially among Texans. For Anglo Texans, it is the “Cradle of Texas Liberty” and a symbol of Western expansion. But Hispanic Texans increasingly view the Alamo as a stolen symbol, its origin as a Spanish mission forgotten, its famous defeat used to rob Hispanics of their place in Texas history. In this study, Holly Beachley Brear explores what the Alamo means to the numerous groups that lay claim to its heritage. Brear shows how—and why—Alamo myths often diverge from the historical facts. She decodes the agendas of various groups, including the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (who maintain the site), the Order of the Alamo, the Texas Cavaliers, and LULAC. She also probes attempts by individuals and groups to rewrite the Alamo myth to include more positive roles for themselves. With new perspectives on all the sacred icons of the Alamo and the Fiesta that celebrates (one version of) its history each year, Inherit the Alamo challenges stereotypes and offers a new understanding of the Alamo’s ongoing role in shaping Texas and American history and mythology.

A socialite and a novelist join forces in San Antonio, Texas, to prevent the destruction of the mission which was the site of the Battle of Alamo. City politicians, in cahoots with businessmen, want the site for commercial development. A first novel.

Originally published in 1917 by Adina de Zavala, this volume reconstructs the history of the Alamo back to pre-colonial times. Its importance lies not only in its portrayal of TexasÍ history as a product of Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American contributions, but also in its focus on the role of Texas women and Texas Mexicans in shaping the historical record. At a time when Texas Mexican women held little influence, de Zavala attempted to rewrite the way Texas history was written and constructed. This milestone literary work includes historical maps, plates, diary accounts and other records.