Crisp, Sleuthing The Alamo - Davy Crockett's Last Stand And Other Mysteries Of The Texas Revolution

Abstract

Sleuthing the Alamo is an amazing little book. James E. Crisp takes the reader behind the scenes and into the world of the revisionist historian. He shows how he found and analyzed documents, how he had to overcome his own preconceptions of what happened during the Texas Revolution, and how he had to deal with adverse public opinion. Apparently it can be dangerous to one's health to suggest that David Crockett did not go down swinging Old Betsy.

Crisp begins his saga with his own public school education in Texas history which, as it turned out, was based much more on myth than on reality. He traces his personal growth into a revisionist historian bent on finding the TRUTH, no matter what myths had to be overturned in the process. The heart of the book reveals his passion for Alamo history and his search for documents about the de la Pena diary. Discarding rumor, he finds that mistranslations have led previous historians down the wrong paths, and that edited diaries can be just as deceptive. Crisp became determined to find out what really happened at the Alamo.