Examining The Real Story of The Alamo And Why The Myths Persist

Texas Public Radio

Ah, the battle cry, the movies, the legend. We all "Remember the Alamo."

But what we remember – or what we've been taught in school – isn't exactly a full or accurate story.

Houston Chronicle business columnist Chris Tomlinson has co-authored a new book, with Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford, that aims to clarify the “real story.” It's called Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth.

In the audio above, he tells Houston Matters host Craig Cohen what's true and what’s false about that popular mythology, why countering that myth remains challenging for historians (the John Wayne movie sure didn't help), and why even some politicians see books like this one not as setting the record straight, but as revisionist history that's based on an agenda, as evidenced in a recent Tweet from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick:

As a member of the Preservation Board, I told staff to cancel this event as soon as I found out about it. Like efforts to move the Cenotaph, which I also stopped, this fact-free rewriting of TX history has no place @BullockMuseum. #txlege https://t.co/ua1aSFxHCk

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) July 2, 2021

MORE: ‘Forget The Alamo’ Author Says We Have The Texas Origin Story All Wrong