Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "When he wrote his autobiography in the winter of 1833-34, David Crockett insisted that it should run at least 200 pages..." (more)
Key Phrases: gentleman from the cane, forged grants, parish courthouse, San Felipe, San Antonio, James Bowie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever since the day in March 1836 when an obscure Spanish mission in Texas fell to Mexican forces led by President Santa Anna, Americans have been exhorted to "remember the Alamo." And remember it we do--primarily as the place where American folk legends Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis met their end fighting for Texas independence. Though it is primarily the Alamo we remember today, the battle itself takes up just a few pages of William C. Davis's Three Roads to the Alamo; Davis is far more interested in what brought three such disparate men as Crockett, Bowie, and Travis to Texas in the first place than in how they died there. As any schoolchild knows, Davy Crockett was the "king of the wild frontier," a bona fide folk hero in his own time who rode his legend to political office first in Tennessee and then as a United States congressman. Bowie was both less well known and less heroic--a land speculator not above resorting to fraud and forgery to get what he wanted, while William Travis, the youngest of the three, brought little but potential with him to Texas.

Davis does a good job of illuminating both the personalities of his subjects and the situation in which they found themselves in Texas. He thoroughly explores the lives of these three men--their successes, their failures, their hopes for the future--and lays out the arguments for and against Texan independence from Mexico in which they found themselves embroiled. By the time Crockett, Bowie, and Travis finally arrive at the Alamo, it seems the inevitable conclusion to the roads they each have been traveling over the course of their lifetimes. Three Roads to the Alamo is a fine piece of historical research and an entertaining read, as well.

From Publishers Weekly

In 1836, Bowie and Travis, who would lead the 200 doomed Texas rebels at the Alamo, met for the first time at the walled adobe buildings that were largely comprised of the church of San Jose y Santiago del Alamo de Parras. A few days later, David Crockett wandered in from Tennessee, where he had lost his bid for reelection to Congress and vowed never to return. In the siege of the compound, all three would die violently in the predawn hours of March 6. Crockett had long been a legend in his own time when he turned up in San Antonio to join Bowie and Travis in the pantheon of frontier gallants. Davis, a much-published historian of 19th-century America, contends that we "part reluctantly with our myths, and the more so when by removing the fable, we leave a hole in the story that we cannot fill with fact." In weaving the three strands of his narrative, which come together only in the last pages as the frontiersman, con man and entrepreneur join forces in the Alamo, Davis evokes boisterous Jacksonian America. His 187 pages of notes attest to the thoroughness of his research. Of the three, Crockett comes off the best, as inventive, yet not immoral like the other two. Bowie, a forger of land claims, and Travis, an unscrupulous country lawyer, hardly fit our prescription for heroes after Davis is done with them. His relentless search for facts sometimes bogs down the reader in excessive detail, yet that may be the best way to reduce romantic myths to reality. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 791 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1st edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060173343
• ISBN-13: 978-0060173340
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #459,217 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting and worthy of its length, April 12, 2004

By	Jesse Steven Hargrave (Silver City, NM) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis (Paperback)

I sheepishly admit to being one of those people for whom a 790-page book on the Alamo is not at all excessive. In "Three Roads to the Alamo" William C. Davis fills those many pages with a narrative that seems to me the most authentic, objective, and substantiated account connected to the well-known but often-distorted events of 1836.

As the title indicates, Davies' organizing focus is on the biographies of the three American principals at San Antonio: David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Travis. He traces their lives in interleaved chapters that follow a generally chronological path. None of the three turn out to be anything near the paragons of virtue and/or honesty depicted in the standard accounting. Courage they most certainly had, but in Davies' retelling it was a courage born of self-interest and opportunism. Of the three, only Crockett's story leaves us feeling any great sympathy toward its subject. Still, even in this revisionist account, their lives maintain an unsurpassed power to both instruct and excite.

Bowie is depicted as a land-speculator of the most dishonest kind. He achieved his fortune largely by forging Spanish Land Grants in Louisiana. Davies shows that in this he was hardly unique, although perhaps an over-achiever.

Travis led a short and mysterious life, and his character remains elusive despite Davies' prodigious research. Like many of the Alamo defenders, he came to Texas to reinvent himself and to leave behind a failed past. Davies does his best to sort out the details of that abandoned past life.

Crockett's road to a legendary death is well-told here in all its diversity. Davies is especially convincing in dealing with Crockett's political career, characterizing it as one marked by "naïveté, miscalculations, and simple blunders." And the author's detailing of the manipulation of Crockett by the Whig press and party leadership gives a dimension to the story that is not often treated. Despite a generally cynical portrayal, the author also provides ample evidence of Crockett's more appealing traits, which go far in explaining why this defeated ex-Congressman was received with such enthusiasm in Texas.

The events at the Alamo actually take up a small portion of the book, but a "small portion" here is still a substantial serving. There are also approximately 160 pages of Notes. I'd advise the reader not to skip them. Davies not only discusses there some of the major controversies of his subjects' lives and of the war's details; he also relegates some of the best stories to those pages - presumably because of their debatable legitimacy.

While Davies deals effectively with the ambiguities of the mission's final battle, I feel his most vital accomplishment is in showing his three subjects to be "in every way men of their time." In this sense, the book is as much about the dynamics of American life in the middle third of the 19th-century, and of Texas as an exemplar of American values, good and bad. It's also a damn good read.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting to the truth of the Alamo, February 14, 2003

By	Chris K. Wilson "Chris Kent" (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis (Paperback)

I'm not sure if William C. Davis' "Three Roads to the Alamo" is a reinterpretation of the 1836 Alamo siege more than it is a truly exhaustive study of the three men who define that battle. A detailed and fascinating examination of the lives of David Crockett, James Bowie and William Barret Travis, "Three Roads to the Alamo" cuts through the myth and legend, revealing the dirt and substance of these men's lives en route to their eventual deaths in San Antonio.

Certainly the myth of Crockett is dented somewhat, as we see that he is a man clumsy in politics, impatient with family life, seeking the next adventure. Bowie also comes across as a rather scandalous man, involved in shady land and slave dealings which would have most certainly placed him in jail today. And finally Travis, whose life has never before been examined with such detail, comes across as a rather poor businessman, constantly in debt and a obsessive womanizer to boot.

Like all great historical figures shrouded in myth, it was only a matter of time before modern-day historians placed these Texas revolutionary heroes beneath a very un-romantic, yet 21st century microscope. So it comes as a rather stunning surprise that after these three statue-like figures are dressed down in human fashion, by battle's end they still, somehow, manage to put their past behind them and become heroes in spite of their many flaws.

I'm not sure if Mr. Davis did this intentionally, just as I'm not sure if you could truly draw a portrait of these men and this battle and not find shades of extraordinary heroism within the walls of that mission fortress. Certainly, John Wayne's infamous 1960 film "The Alamo" is anything but the truth, but the great unvarnished fact about this story is that even with the bones revealed, these men still come across as noble and heroic, having seized an incredible moment in time, thus surviving for all eternity.

And that, undoubtedly, is what continues to fascinate Americans, if not world citizens, about this battle. These men, while holding out for the hope of reinforcements, chose to stay, eventually sealing their doom. Yes, the line may not have been drawn in the sand, but in "Three Roads to the Alamo," that obvious fact becomes surprisingly irrelevant. Warts and all, these men's lives serve as the proper contrast to their eventual final deeds, making their decisions in 1836 all the more unforgettable.

"Three Roads to the Alamo" is a intimately detailed historic work, which will fascinate all readers interested in this legendary battle. Arguably, it is one of the finest books yet written about this 13-day siege.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Look Behind the Legends, February 16, 2005

By	M. T. Vancampen (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis (Paperback)

The story of the Alamo has become the stuff of legend. The names most associated with the Alamo-James Bowie, David Crockett, and William Barret Travis-have taken on a mythological aura-especially in Texas. Davis' goal here is not to tell the story of the Alamo again (the actual battle covers very few pages) but to take a look behind the legends and attempt to draw a human portrait of these three heroes of the Alamo with flaws (and there are a lot of flaws here) and all.

David Crockett had already become the stuff of legend by the time he made his way to the Alamo. Davis implies he only referred to himself as Davy to further the popular image of himself as a naïve back woodsman. David further implied that Crockett was inept and selfish at best in politics and neglectful of family. Of the three, however, Crockett does emerge as the most sympathetic. Bowie is presented as shady at best. In his pre-Alamo days, Bowie was a greedy speculator who was not above slave-trading or colossal dishonesty in the attempt to acquire land. There is little source material for Travis' life. Yet, Davis is able to draw a convincing picture of this failed lawyer who fled his native state to flee financial collapse and professional ruin.

Ultimately, what will cause this book to become a classic on this near-mythological battle will be that Davis examines these three guys as human and not as solely legends. If he had chosen to write one book on each of these three it would have been a good book; by choosing to write about all three in one book he has produced a great book.