Books : Lone Star Nation: The Epic Story of the Battle for Texas Independence
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by: H.W. Brands
List Price: $17.95Amazon.com's Price: $12.21 You Save: $5.74 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.403
EAN: 9781400030705
ISBN: 1400030706
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: February 08, 2005
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: February 08, 2005
Sales Rank: 82769
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In Lone Star Nation, Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W. Brands demythologizes Texas’s journey to statehood and restores the genuinely heroic spirit to a pivotal chapter in American history.
From Stephen Austin, Texas’s reluctant founder, to the alcoholic Sam Houston, who came to lead the Texas army in its hour of crisis and glory, to President Andrew Jackson, whose expansionist aspirations loomed large in the background, here is the story of Texas and the outsize figures who shaped its turbulent history. Beginning with its early colonization in the 1820s and taking in the shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad, its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches, and its day of liberation as an upstart republic, Brands’ lively history draws on contemporary accounts, diaries, and letters to animate a diverse cast of characters whose adventures, exploits, and ambitions live on in the very fabric of our nation.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - history as riveting as an epic novel
Outstanding book, written with elegance and vigor. If you know the details already you will not find new revelations here, but Lone Star Nation is so well done that even if you aren't especially interested in Texan history, after a couple of chapters you will be. The audiobook, read by Don Leslie, is highly recommended.
Rating: - Detailed; Raw and Not over your head
Brands writes the "epic" story of these men who fought for Texas independence. He does not write over your head and does not leave the reader uninformed. He does not hold back details about the "mythical" Texas figures who are "larger than life" in most accounts. It is a simple and effective way to learn about the Texas Revolution.
Rating:  - Brisk retelling of early Texas history
A well-written history of the Texas Revolution and the events leading up to it. If you're already well-acquainted with Texas history, there's not much of anything new in this book, but H.W. Brands has an excellent eye for the telling detail and a good ear for the vivid quote that make the material feel fresh and lively.
What I especially liked about Brands' approach in this book is that he steers a commendable middle course between the traditional hagiography of flawlessly brave Texan ... Read More
Rating: - Putting the Story Back in History
Brands does a great job of weaving the lives of Austin, Santa Anna and others together in a compelling fashion. His vivid narrative style makes you forget you are reading history, but rather makes you feel you are sitting around a fireplace listening to a master storyteller perform his craft with grace and ease.
Rating: - A great, readable history of Texas' fight for independence
Brands, without being multicultural for multiculturalism's sake, documents both the Hispanic and the Anglo contribution to Texas' independence. He does so without giving saccharine descriptions of either group's leadership or their ability to always get alone with one another, either before or after 1836.
And, in the years leading up to the Texas Revolution, he doesn't sidestep the slavery question either.
That honest eye is important, because in the last section of the book, ... Read More
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