Book Review: Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford, Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, New York: Penguin Press, 2021

Forget the Alamo is the latest in a lengthy line of books focusing on the Alamo and the Texas founding myth. The book is the product of three authors and native Texans: Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford – two journalists and a political strategist. Tomlinson is a business correspondent for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express. His most recent work, Tomlinson Hill, is a study of the author's family's slave-holding past. Stanford is a Democratic strategist and former director of communication for Austin mayor Steven Adler. Burrough, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, is best known for his book, Days of Rage, a study of toxic, fringe radical movements during the 70s and 80s. It is Burrough's reputation as a political moderate that lends this work a credibility it would otherwise lack. Written in two parts, the first ten chapters address the battle of the Alamo and the events leading up to the disaster with the remaining chapters examining the historiography of the Alamo in relation to the Texas Revolution and attitudes of writers since the battle. The text concludes with a discussion of the Alamo as a renewed source of political capital for right-leaning political actors.