The Alamo And The Texas War For Independence [Paperback]

Alber A. Nofi (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0306810409 | ISBN-13: 978-0306810404 | Publication Date: February 20, 2001 | Edition: 2

In one of very few balanced accounts of Texas's epic struggle for independence from Mexico, Albert Nofi provides a splendid chronicle of the events and personalities of the war. He includes readable and accessible maps of military movements and a strategic and tactical analysis of each battle, addressing the extraordinary number of myths that the Alamo has engendered and exposing the truth about a conflict that has taken on legendary proportions.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Albert A. Nofi has a Ph.D. in Military History from the City University of New York and was associate editor for many years of the ground-breaking military journal Strategy and Tactics. He was a founder of wargaming, the conflict simulation system used both by hobbyists and military planners. Dr. Nofi has written numerous books and articles on military history and was a news media military commentator during the Persian Gulf War. He is also the author of The Gettysburg Campaign and The Waterloo Campaign.

Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 2 edition (February 20, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306810409
• ISBN-13: 978-0306810404
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,914 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of the Texas struggle for independence, September 6, 2007

By 

Lee Madland (Missoula, MT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Alamo And The Texas War For Independence (Paperback)

Having just finished reading this book, along with several others recently on this topic, I believe the previous "Don't waste your money" review is very misleading, dismissing it out of hand without giving specific reasons for doing so (other than "careless and inaccurate research," neither specified nor even one example given). The unfolding of many incidents at the Alamo will never be known since all defenders were slain; (survivors being a few mostly women and children who were in hiding and saw nothing of the battle).

In any case, the book is not only well written with plenty of solid information easily verified elsewhere, but stands alongside the often cited "A Time to Stand" by Walter Lord (1961), and goes into more detail on many fascinating aspects in the background of the Texas struggle for independence. (See also the Amazon customer reviews of the earlier edition of Nofi's book. A note to potential buyers: The two editions listed by Amazon are identical reprints of the original 1982 edition -- I have both, and as far as I can see they differ only in the cover and title pages; thus there is little to choose between them other than price and condition.)

I suspect the reviewer mentioned above is nursing a pique over the author's treatment of certain of the "myths" regarding the Alamo, and certainly it is true that some incidents have taken on mythic proportions with fierce defenders of viewpoints on either side. As one example, did Crockett go down while fighting, or was he captured and quickly executed on Santa Anna's orders? Nofi leans, though not stridently so, toward the latter version given by the Mexican Lt. Colonel José Enrique de la Peña who was there, and which was published in Mexico City not in 1836 as claimed by some but, according to new research by James E. Crisp (in his 2005 book"Sleuthing the Alamo"), many years later. On the other hand, some have denounced the de la Peña account as either a forgery, misrepresention, or fabrication by a Mexican partisan. Obviously neither viewpoint can now be proven with absolute certainty. But whichever may be correct, and whatever passions are now held, neither version contradicts the heroism of Crockett -- in Nofi's words, "dying defiantly and bravely, precisely as de la Peña says he did."

A very interesting feature of Nofi's book is his boxed summaries outlining the careers of principal characters on both the Texan and Mexican sides. And not only the familiar Crockett, Travis, Bowie, Houston, Santa Anna, etc. As one example, General Juan José Urrea, "perhaps the ablest officer in the Mexican Army in Texas," who urged that Santa Anna's forced order while Houston's prisoner at San Jacinto -- that all 4,000 Mexican troops remaining in Texas march home -- be disobeyed. Had Urrea been listened to, the author further comments, "the outcome of the Texas Revolution might readily have been reversed." (Of these, over 2,500 fully equipped Mexican troops were less than 50 miles behind, as against Houston's fewer than 1,000 effective troops in the vicinity, some of whom were needed to guard hundreds of prisoners taken in battle.)

Other boxed summaries usefully address various other points of interest, a few examples being the evolution of and distinction between of the various terms "Tejano," "Texian," "Texican," and "Texan"; the several estimated troop strengths and casualties on both sides in various actions; the flags likely flown over the Alamo by its defenders; and one explaining the "blue northers" that harried Santa Anna's troops in February with up to two feet of snow that caused some numbers of animals and troops to fall by the wayside and die shortly before reaching Texas (particularly among those of the 300-man Yucatán battalion who were used to tropical heat and had never seen snow).

Overall this book is a very rewarding read for those interested, whatever side of the various disputed points one may favor.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read, but contains inaccuracies, September 1, 2009

By 

Karen Cormier (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Alamo And The Texas War For Independence (Paperback)

Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought it was easy to read and provided a good broad-based overview. However, I would caution anyone against using this as the primary reference for information about the Battle of the Alamo. There were a few glaring mistakes (including placing the Gonzales reinforcement arrival in the afternoon; they actually arrived before dawn).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good summary, June 21, 2008

By 

Reader "wyj3" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Alamo And The Texas War For Independence (Paperback)

This is the second best summary military history of the war of 1835-36, the first best being Stephen Hardin's _Texian Iliad_. The story of this conflict, far from being minor, can be seen to be among the most important of the nineteenth century when its eventual effects are taken into account. There were far-reaching issues that military histories like these two are not intended to treat. The best introduction to those issues is the Texas Declaration of Independence, which obviously owes a lot to the American declaration of 1776, but is still specific to Texas in 1836.