About book The Blood Of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle For The Alamo--and The Sacrifice That Forged A Nation (2012)
The book starts off slowly. Donovan spends time outlining the backstory of the major players (Bowie, Travis, Crockett, Santa Anna) and a brief history of Texas and Anglos in Texas up to that point.Once Santa Anna and his army start their march north, the narrative picks up. Donovan describes battle scenes very well. Even on audio, in the car, with no maps or diagrams to reference, I felt like I had a sense of how the siege and battle played out. Definitely a gripping story. I would sit in my car trying to finish.I only had a couple quibbles with the book. The first quibble is with the last chapter, devoted to the line in the sand Travis was said to have drawn. The truth of that line and the history of how knowledge of the line had come to be drawn was interesting, but after the fighting and action of the previous chapters, it was a bit of a let down. I'm not sure where this chapter would have been better placed, but at the end, it meant the pacing went from super sonic jet to snail with little time for the reader adjust.The other quibble with with Susanna of the Alamo. Susanna of the Alamo was one of my favorite children's books and until Donovan's book, I didn't know that other women survived the battle. I wish Donovan had covered what happened to the Esparza women or Concepcion Losoya after the Alamo battle ended. Surely they also had something to say. And, if no one ever interviewed them (or nothing of an interview has survived), I wish Donovan had acknowledged that. I just came back from San Antonio and a visit to the Alamo so I read this book before departing. The book did an excellent job describing the characters involved in the battle for the Alamo, including the Mexican generals. I also got an appreciation for the difficult terrain that the Mexican army had to traverse to reach Bexar.The other point the book made was that pretty much everyone was either too rational or too afraid to come and help Travis and the rebels at the Alamo. It really makes the Alamo defenders stand out as courageous or stupid. General Santa Anna's brutal policy of executing every Texas revolutionary he capured also helped others to join Houston after the Alamo in defeating him and the Mexican army.
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Excellent read. Very well researched and very well presented for the general reader of history.
—Rebeccalouise
Anyone who loves American history will love this book. Great writer. Captivating story.
—leslie
This was a good overview of the Battle of the Alamo and the immediate impact afterward.
—xdiianne
Great history of the build up, battle and aftermath.
—bobdurnall
