Customer Reviews

Alamo Reader

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No reader without at least a basic understanding of the events and personalities connected with the Alamo battle should tackle Todd Hansen's "The Alamo Reader", but once a decent grounding in the history of that famous fight has been acquired -- and if that reader really wants to understand what happened -- then Hansen's book is a marvelous resource. An extraordinary range of primary source material is presented in the volume, and not just excerpts from one version of an eyewitness's account, but the whole of every variation. Hansen provides commentaries to help evaluate these sources for reliability, but the final evaluation of which to accept and which to reject is left to the judgment of the reader. Analytical essays by various noted Alamo experts are also provided for additional illumination. There has been nothing like this ever published about the Alamo before (and seldom about any other historical topic), and I cannot conceive how anyone seriously interested in the Alamo could not want a copy of Hansen's book on their shelves.

The most comprehensive compendium of source documents concerning the Alamo and their location, I've ever seen. This book is the starting place for any serious study of the siege and battle of early 1836. Hansen's discussions of various aspects of the documents and their contents at the end of each section are well thought out and well considered.
Be forewarned: This is a thinking person's book. The reader is not spoon fed answers. On the contrary, the reader will be forced to consider aspects not usually taken into account and contradictions not easily reconciled. The one thing this book teaches is that there are no easy answers. Hansen doesn't do the work for the reader and "Bravo" to him for giving the reader credit for having a brain.

At last! A reliable study of the siege and fall of the Alamo,backed up by a wealth of source documents, many published for the first time. At almost 800 pages, The Alamo Reader, edited by Todd Hansen, contains over 300 documents from letters written during the days leading up to the siege to reminiscences written decades later. His commentaries sum up this incredible tour de force of research. Well footnoted, Hansen supplies the raw material so readers can reach their own conclusions
about many controversial issues. A "must read" for any student of Texas history and the Alamo.

I agree that this is a "must read" for any serious student of the topic. The author admits that he is not a professional academic historian but he took on this massive work because he correctly realized how necessary it was. As large as this compilation is, it does not (indeed, could not) include all of the primary material on the Alamo. What it does do is successfully show the nature of the sources Alamo writers have been using and continue to use. The sources are not only contradictory in many cases, but often of limited reliability (even when they appear to be detailed "official" records). That is why students of the Alamo should read this book before they blindly accept judgements presented in any other format, be it a written history, documentary, historical novel, or film.

A long overdue book---a compilation of hundreds of essentially contemporary documents and other accounts concerning the Alamo battle, which comprise its main strength. It's a pity the editor felt it necessary to comment on each historical issue rather than let the accounts speak for themselves, since he falls into the same, subjective, "I-have-a-hunch" trap of so many writers on this subject. E.g., he gives the questionable account of "Ben" more weight than those of Mexican officers regarding Crockett's demise, and on the question of the location of the Alamo flag, completely ignores the drawing by Captain Sanchez-Navarro that explicity places it atop the church. As a source book on the Alamo, this tome stands alone. As reliable scholarship on the subject--reader beware!