The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Miracle of Dunkirk tells the story of the Texans who fought Santa Anna’s troops at the Battle of the Alamo. Looking out over the walls of the whitewashed Alamo, sweltering in the intense sun of a February heat wave, Colonel William Travis knew his small garrison had little chance of holding back the Mexican army. Even after a call for reinforcements … call for reinforcements brought dozens of Texans determined to fight for their fledgling republic, the cause remained hopeless. Gunpowder was scarce, food was running out, and the compound was too large to easily defend with less than two hundred soldiers. Still, given the choice, only one man opted to surrender. The rest resolved to fight and die. After thirteen days, the Mexicans charged, and the Texans were slaughtered. In exquisite detail, Walter Lord recreates the fight to uphold the Texan flag. He sheds light not just on frontier celebrities like Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, but on the ordinary soldiers who died alongside them. Though the fight ended two centuries ago, the men of the Alamo will never be forgotten.
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Walter Lord is one of my favorite historical writers. He always works hard to uncover little known facts about the period of history he is writing about.
Great book on the Alamo battle, its lead up and afte4math. Lord is a capable historian who writes as if he’s describing the action as an eyewitness. Highly recommend all of his historical books.
The reader left something to be desired. I’m from Texas and he should have learned how to pronounce place names. Not much inflection on voice. There were facts I didn’t know do that was interesting
A great easy to read historical account of the Battle of the Alamo
I love history, especially ‘real’ history that shows real people as they were, not white-washed and cleaned up. This provided that. Fascinating .
Very interesting.
Lord is a master at the historical time line book
If you want the historical details, Walter Lord is a good source.
Being a native Texan, I thought I knew a lot about the Alamo and its history, but this presented details that were new to me. It is well-researched and has a voluminous list of sources. This should be read by every native Texan.
I grew up in San Antonio and have always been fascinated by the Alamo and the heroic characters I learned about in school. This book helped me see the more realistic side of the defenders of the Alamo based on good historical study. Some of them came out with less luster than before; others I did not know about received enhanced standing in my …
A great story told by a master story-teller. Pretty shallow historical development and lacks context/detail, however. A good intro to the Alamo ….
The subtitle says it all: the epic story of the Alabama.
It is an epic story, epically told about an epic event in American history.
Walter Lord is an epic writer.
Tired of all the”epics”?
Read the book!
Well written and thoughtfully put together. I especially enjoyed reading the timelines and how carefully they were put together. It helped me recognize how the same person or event could be written down differently by different people but still be the same person or event. This actually helped me tracing my own family ancestry in Texas.
Author did a very thorough explanation of events leading up to the battle, including people involved and the lack of timely and effective support that was repeatedly requested. The many fighters that became heros, and the numerous examples of corruption that were prevalent in that era. These were not taught when I went to school in the sixties and …
All the facts that are known, presented in a way to keep your attention.
This book is an easy and quick read for anyone wanting to understand events surrounding the last stand at the Alamo. The history is covered nicely without undue amounts of detail. For the truly critical reader of this period of history, the author has abundant notes at the end of the book explaining where historical uncertainties exist and why …
The covering of the men at the Alamo was great. Disappointed in the description of the battle at San Jacinto.
I grew up with Walter Lord. Accurate, easy read. Good history for the young reader.
Great book. Kind of depressing though.
Everything I ever wanted to know about the alamo and more.