25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best of it's Kind, March 1, 2008
This review is from: The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey (Hardcover)
For over forty years, I have been deeply interested in the Alamo and the historic/heroic battle that was fought there. And I have often wondered how the Alamo truly appeared in 1836 and what I might have seen had I been there. Would it resemble the accepted depictions I've seen in numerous books? Would some of the Alamo's unique features be there or would reality reveal something else? When viewing all the graphic evidence together, it becomes both a confusing and difficult task when trying to decide who is right and who is wrong. Am I looking at fact or fiction...artistic interpretation or a true rendering? Well, after carefully examining Mark Lemon's ground-breaking book - "The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A photographic Journey", I can say, "I know...I've been there."
Prior to the release of Mark Lemon's work, artist/historian George Nelson produced - "The Alamo: An Illustrated History" in 1998. A year later in 1999, historian Alan Huffines and historical illustrator Gary Zaboly presented - "The Blood of Noble Men." Both Nelson, and in paticular, Zaboly, began a process of peeling away the myths and fallacies that had become some much a part of the Alamo's architectural legend. Mark Lemon has, not just taken the next step, but has made a gigantic leap...and we, the readers, as well as the Alamo itself, are the beneficiaries. "The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey" is without question a landmark book that beautifully documents one of this countries most treasured landmarks. Mark Lemon's hard work and dedication has delivered the goods...and believe me, there is much "good."
Clearly, Lemon's penchant for detail, no matter how small, is obvious in each picture and drawing. Every brick, every stone, every stick...every shovelful of earth, appears to have been calculated and accounted for. His devotion to the truth about the Alamo's true architectural history has produced a "must have" book that will be referred to for generations.
Enhancing Mark Lemon's amazing reproduction is the backround work of filmmaker and photographer Gary Forman and graphic designer William Hamilton. The team of Forman and Hamilton have successfully taken Lemon's Alamo and transported it from the worktable to the banks of the San Antonio river. The realistic addition of earth and sky contribute mightly to the effect that "you are there" and help the reader complete the "journey." This is a book I strongly recommend and I eagerly look forward to Mark Lemon's next pictorial endeavor.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must buy, March 13, 2008
This review is from: The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey (Hardcover)
I seldom enter Amazon reviews but this book so far exceeded my expectations I had to put up a 5 star review. There is nothing I can add to the very good reviews already posted - if you have even a passing interest in the Alamo or Texas history you will be entranced by this book. A steal at the price.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
13 Days to Glory--and You Are There, March 6, 2009
This review is from: The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey (Hardcover)
In the pre-dawn of March 6, 1836, the fate of an unknown number (but probably around 200) of Tejanos, Texians and American Texas immigrant rebels and an unknown number (but probably in the high hundreds to low thousands) of Loyalist Mexican soldiers was decided at a place almost everyone has heard of...but that almost no one can properly visualize, as it was on the day: the crucible of Texas liberty (and an anvil upon which was struck much of subsequent North American history, from the nineteenth century through the present)--the Alamo.
Artist Mark Lemon has created the most thorough-going visual recreation of the Alamo to date, in his meticulously-researched and skillfully rendered 'The Illustrated Alamo 1836 A Photographic Journey.' From the 1/48th scale model Alamo he bases his work on, to the stunningly evocative photographic work which brings the model to realistic life, to the text analysis of both, including his reasoning behind some of the speculative decisions he had to make, Lemon's work is impeccable...and the result is a fuller understanding of the monumental hopelessness of a few hundred defenders securing so broad and open a 'fortress' against determined assault--and a deeper appreciation for the depth of their conviction to their cause, that nonetheless they tried.
While there are unfortunate errors in editing (Lemon consistently misspells Alamo commander William Barret Travis' middle name, for example), they are rendered inconsequential in contrast to the enormity and thoroughness of Lemon's research. Not only does he cover the physical plant of the Alamo on that fateful day (visitors to the shrine as it is currently preserved in San Antonio unfamiliar with the changes--and in some cases virtual demolition--the Alamo has been subject to in the years since 1836 will be stunned by how different a place it was), Lemon also details virtually everything known of the mission fortress' artillery battery, complete with illustrations of the guns, and provides one of the most cogently-argued analyses of which flag(s) flew over the commandery while it was in possession of the Texians, and why.
That this is a must for the library of every Alamo historian goes without saying. It will probably be of considerable interest to the model-builder and miniature military gamer, as well; though Lemon's triumphs here are ultimately in line with his intentions--to recreate history insofar as possible and do so with an artistry that transcends simple recreation--the stunning package that is 'The Illustrated Alamo 1836' is arguably one of the most beautiful, elaborate tributes to the scale modelers' art, as well, and deserves appreciation for that.
By the time the sun rose on the Mission San Antonio de Valero on March 6, 1836, the thirteen day seige was over. William Barret Travis, James Butler Bonham, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and her other defenders were all massacred (or soon would be, depending on one's fixation with how things for each of them ended, especially Crockett). Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the 'Napoleon of the West,' would dismiss the battle as 'a small affair.' But the most experienced heart of his veteran army lay wounded, dying or dead piled high against the mission fortress' north wall, and dedication to a cause--which was arguably still smouldering in the hearts of many beyond its most ardent disciples--had been fanned to incandescence by Travis' epistolary eloquence, by the band of defenders' courage, by the mercilessness of Santa Anna's massacre. Without the Alamo, there well might never have been a Texas.
Mark Lemon's book finally brings the birthplace of Texas freedom back to life, as it was, and takes us there.
+++
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