Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding work, the best details of history yet.
Review: This has to be the best Alamo book I have read to date. The lives of the 3 main characters of the Alamo cast are layed out before you. The biography of Crockett,Travis and Bowie really gives one insight into what these men were made of. Having just returned from a vacation in the city of San Antonio, my reading of this book really made my visit to The Alamo a wonderful experience. This is a fine word of history.
Rating:
Summary: A great book, unless you love Disney's Crockett
Review: This is a great history book. It covers a mythic battle that the reader is sure to know in outline, if not better. It peeks behind the myths, only to discover more heros. Further, it makes the story a parable about North America. There is nothing better. It's interesting how the author keeps us guessing about the 'true nature' of our heros. James Bowie starts out the most offensive of rogues, but ends up finding something more important than money. David Crockett starts off a Disney hero, but ends up being a rather befuddled witness to history (or perhaps a magnet for it). Finally, one shouldn't ignore the way Williams dances through the jingoistic pot-holes. There is a great deal of jingoistic blather laid down by the Disney version of the Alamo, not to mention what some Texans think. The Texas revolution was primarily a fight for the US slave system and real estate riches. The liberties so proudly linked to the Alamo included the liberty to treat people like cattle. The Disney version hides this by playing Mexican President Santa Anna as a 19th century King George the III, but no serious reader can ignore the absurdity of such a claim. Williams minces no words about the jingoistic aspect of his three biographies. While reading, one wonders if he isn't just setting all three up for a concluding disgrace. This brings me to what I think the best aspect of the book. It tells a straight story that both Hispanic and Anglo can read. There is more to the story than land swindles, robbing the natives and slavery. The story describes how Hispanic and Anglo cultures can blend, a story of growing importance. There is a great deal more to tell, but I like the way this section of it was told.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of the acclaim and a little quibble
Review: This is an impressive work. Davis has penned a fine narrative with a truly impressive amount of research and detail. The obvious scholarly effort is quite astounding, even if all the minute details of Jim Bowie's multiple land fraud schemes become somewhat mind numbing in their exacting detail. But where the author truly shines is in his perspective and painting of the larger canvas of these three amazing and quite different American heros. He answers the question that was in the forefront of my mind when I first visited the grounds held sacred to all loyal Texan (or Texians), namely, how did these three amazing individuals, Crockett, Bowie, and Travis end up in this ruined Spanish mission? The answer is enjoyably laid out in this book. A crackin' good historical read. My only quibble and criticism is with Mr. Davis' characterization of James Bowie's early efforts to financially prosper by smuggling slaves illegally into the United States just prior to 1820 in Chapter Two: "It showed him a species of crime easy on the conscience because it left no victim yet still offered considerable profit. He stole from no one when he smuggled slaves." I fairly wanted to scream out: What about the slaves themselves! Weren't they victims? Mr. Bowie certainly had this blind spot so characteristic of this era in the southern United States, but Mr. Davis has less of an excuse. Still, I don't want to sound like the PC police and detract too much from this fine work, hence the 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written/researched biography of the three Alamo heroes.
Review: This is the most important book about the Alamo and its heroes to appear in the last three decades. Davis has undertaken meticulous research, including review of previously unseen documents in Mexico's military archives, to construct new, revealing biographies of the three most celebrated Alamo heroes. Especially valuable are the sketches of Bowie and Travis, about whom there are no earlier satisfactory biographies. Many will find Travis's story completely new, and Davis portrays the Alamo commander as an important political leader of the Texian revolt, whose death was an incalculable loss to that cause. Bowie, on the other hand, is something of a rogue, forever scheming to turn a dishonest dollar through slave smuggling or land fraud. However, Davis also captures Bowie's daring, bravery, and leadership capabilities, particularly in battle. Crockett's story is more familiar, but Davis adds new interpretation and assessment of the frontier politician and folk hero,! deftly distinguishing the two and tracing the emergence of the fictional "Davy," partially by Crockett's own design. Other historical figures, particularly Sam Houston, do not fair so well, and Davis reveals the petty politics that may have led to abandonment of the doomed Alamo garrison. The work is not intended as a study of the Alamo itself, and the siege and battle are confined to a single chapter. Nonetheless, Davis has uncovered new information and formed unique insights about the event and the actions there of the three heroes. Much myth is stripped away, and Davis reveals the human failings of the three figures, who still emerge as courageous men of stubborn conviction, in many ways typical of those who sought to improve their fortunes by exploiting opportunities along America's expanding frontier. The book deserves a place beside such highly-regarded Alamo works as Walter Lord's "A Time To Stand." Allen J. Wiener
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This may be the best history book I have ever read. It is in the same league as "The Guns of August" and "The Face of Battle". Davis illuminates the lives of three of the greatest American heroes--heroes whose lives were previously shrouded in their own glory. We all know the Davy Crockett played by Fess Parker--the King of the Wild Frontier. Our images of Jim Bowie and William B. Travis come to us from John Wayne's Alamo rendition. But these men have no flaws--they are not human. Davis brings us back to reality by showing that they were simply men of their times. The parallel biography is an excellent vehicle for driving this story, especially, as Davis points out, since the three men in the story represent the three levels of civilization. You have Crockett, the trail blazer, Bowie, the speculator, and Travis, the settler. Each has his own unique qualities, and adds a dimension to this tale of Jacksonian America. It is apparent that Davis was bound and determined to correct the myths around these three men, and for the most part he succeeds. He seems to come down unduly hard on Crockett, but then again, Crockett's image needed the most redressing. However, he does not totally undo the Crockett myth, with his much more heroic description of Davy at the Alamo. Bowie and Travis are also cut down, but to lesser degrees. In fact, Davis almost plays down Bowie's land schemes and he is obviously the author's favorite. As for the book itself, it is very readable if somewhat long. But once you pick it up, you will not want to put it down as Davis brings these men alive, and in the end, you truly feel their loss. It is a unique story, because as it progresses, it seems these men are invincible--giants in their own age, but we all know how the story ends, and yet still find ourselves wishing something will happen and history will change. Not many books can accomplish that kind of involvement. "Three Roads to the Alamo" does.
Rating: 
Summary: A cop out
Review: This well written book went down the toilet when the author chose to ignore Pena's account of Crockett's death. His logic for rejecting this is astoundingly bad. He says in his footnote that the fact Texans were saying the same thing as the Mexicans a few days after the fight is a reason not to believe it. In other words, he says that because both the Mexicans and Texans agreed about how Crockett died, that makes it less credible!! What? How did he get there. Too bad. This is a pretty good book that seems to be looking for the truth along the way and then at the end couldn't stand to go the final yard and face the fact that David Crockett didn't die fighting but tried to surrender. Everyone on both sides believed this at the time, Pena's firsthand account is very credible and almost every other historian in recent times accepts it except this author. He clings to the idea that no one knows how Crockett died. He's wrong. His death is better documented than anyone at the Alamo. For hundreds of pages Davis fooled me. I thought he was an objective observer. It turns out he's just a Davy Crockett fan. He should have put that coonskin hat back in mothballs before he began this work.
Rating:
Summary: A triumph of "triography"
Review: Three key figures in the Alamo legend, three biographies intertwined into a single story. Davis is able to write parallel accounts of the lives of Crockett, Bowie and Travis, so that the reader knows what the others have been up to while reading about the third. Meticulous research, and Davis does not bog down the narrative with long explanations about sources. However, he does supply adequate information in the notes at the end of the book, for those who are fond of reading them. Perhaps the most interesting information to come from the book is the shattering of myths surrounding these three men. Travis was a failure in life, whose law career didn't pick up until he abandoned his native Alabama--and his wife and family--for Texas. Bowie was a swindler, who forged documents claiming to be Spanish land grants for land in present-day Arkansas and Louisiana. And Crockett was the Jesse Ventura of his day, an unlettered self-promoter who became nationally known in the early 1830s and parlayed his fame into a political career that eventually collapsed for lack of substance. A great American story, "Three Roads to the Alamo" can be enjoyed by anyone--even Texas newcomers like me.
Rating: 
Summary: The Accidental Heroes
Review: Three thorough biographies in alternating chapters, trace the life journies of distinct personalities whose fate converged at a broken-down mission. Not for the hero-worshipper, it is nonetheless reverential of the heroism of its fallible protagonists. The valuable footnotes are as illuminating and informative as the text.
Rating:
Summary: This book can whip its weight in wildcats!
Review: Words cannot express my delight with this book. Davis is a hands-down authority on the lives and fortunes of Crockett, Bowie, and Travis, and his gift for narration and storytelling could likely match that of David Crockett himself! Fascinating, entertaining, educational, and engaging. I've never read a historical or biographical text like this before, and I couldn't put it down until I had it finished. I will certainly re-read this book time and again. Absolutely brilliant work, a must-read for everyone.
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