If I could require Texas leaders read one book, it would be the diary of Lt. Col. José Enrique de la Peña.
Texas A&M University Press published an English translation, With Santa Anna in Texas: A Personal Narrative of the Revolution, years ago.
The book is so enlightening some people think it’s subversive. It’s a delightful story because De la Peña was a professional officer who thought Santa Anna was an idiot. He was on Santa Anna’s staff, and so he was in position to report that other generals in the Mexican high command thought Santa Anna was an idiot, too.
It’s a good read. If you want a shorter version to get the gist of it before committing yourself to the book, I have an essay at https://www.hebertaylor.com.
All this comes to mind because state leaders have inserted themselves into the debate in San Antonio about the historical interpretation of the Alamo. The lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, took up an ill-advised fight against Forget the Alamo, a book by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford.
Patrick suggested the authors talk to some real historians at the state’s universities, apparently unaware that the book reports on the consensus of those historians.
Texas has endless cultural wars — and some of the most brutal are historical wars. We sometimes think that the story of the state is the most valuable common property we share.
Popular perceptions of what happened can be wrong, outrageously wrong, if you don’t bother with the facts or let an old John Wayne movie count as the prime historical record.
If you want to get past that, primary sources are hard to beat.
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