Great history! Very well researched and written. Brands provides a fresh insight to Texas independence and the men who brought it about.

By a large margin, my greatest issue with this work is the title. It reads as being overtly jingoistic and perpetuates that dumb stubborn pride many associate with Texans who share their stately heritage in a way that isn't negative. Even the subtitle is misleading, as the mentioned "Ragged Army of Volunteers" didn't actually obtain Texas Independence; they simply captured one threatening and powerful head of the politically conflicted hydra that was the Mexican Government.

That issue addressed and shelved, the content within this book was incredible. Obviously it's coverage of Texas history is limited, but it honors the complexity of the events and people within its established scope. It does not shy away from or dumbly revere the harsh history and reality associated within its timeline. Selfishness, greed, political duplicity, racism, and many other ugly traits are fully demonstrated here; as are more beautiful and venerable ones.

Nothing is ever presented as to be so one-sided that terrible deeds go without some deeper human understanding, or that great accomplishments ride on without some deplorable aspect clinging on. Mexicans living in Texas fought in tandem with white Americans at the Alamo against Santa Anna's army and the troublesome laws of his dictatorship. Santa Anna established said dictatorship largely in part because of how conflict-laden and slow the newly independent Mexican government was. The Mexican government was so slow and conflict-laden because they had just achieved independence from the Spanish Empire, whose century old traditions had become to burdensome and complicated to carry forth into the new world. So on, and so on. This kind of complexity (of which I'm just grazing some surfaces) is tactfully and entertainingly approached by author H. W. Brands.

If there's any other issue that absolutely has to be addressed outside of the title, it would probably be pacing / attention to detail. While most of the detail is centered around 1836-1845, areas outside of that are sometimes grazed over while others are focused on in a way that feels inconsistent. Ultimately, I think that these detail laden detours and quick summary express lanes dispersed throughout are necessary.

The last thing I'll share is how inspired I am by the history and all those involved. I feel a greater awareness, appreciation, and understanding for the world I am a part of and come from. If there continues to be great changes within my life that I pursue, it will be in some part due to this work and the history of the world that I continue to engage with.

Another great piece of American history, annotated by an author, who is a joy to read.

Probably should go back and re-read this book straight through. This was such an on again off again read that I’m not able to do it justice in this review. I am giving it a three-star review as I didn’t hold my attention as well as other books he’s written such as the Ben Franklin biography.

I was very interested in the history of Texas and it’s involvement with becoming part of the United States. And I think this book hits on all that history very well, including bringing to light the roles and personalities of the “larger than life“ figures, such as Davy, Crockett, Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, Santa Anna, & Stephen F Austin.

I would not put too much credence in my star rating. I enjoyed the book while I was reading it but I always found other things to read or just not pick it up to finish it over the 4 months. Still a good book covering a little known part of American history -at least little known to me.

This was a good book, telling the story of the founding of the State of Texas up to the Civial War and including lots of facts and tidbits of all the major and even minor Characters that played such a vital role in the birth of Texas as part of the United States.

Surprisingly enjoyable read for someone who doesn't read a lot of nonfiction. Brands' writing mixes non-stuffy analysis with fascinating excerpts from the letters and diaries of Texas' founding fathers. He portrayed them in all their flawed, drunken, grandiose, family-abandoning glory and yet one still is awed by their bravery, vision and spirit of adventure. As a non-native Texas who has lived in the Lone Star State most of my adult life, I found it a fascinating read!

Typical Brands, which is to say a thoroughly engaging tour de force deploying biographies to elucidate history. In this case the Anglo settlement/invasion of Texas, the move toward independence, annexation to the US, slavery, and secession. The Austin family, Sam Houston, Santa Anna are prominently highlighted but cameos from the like of Jim Bowie, Davey Crockett and Andrew Jackson help explain the emergence and evolution of this most complicated state.

Brands also presents a mostly sympathetic, albeit brief, view of the plight of Native Americans in the region (particularly the Comanche) but can be legitimately criticized for a Eurocentric emphasis. That is even more true with respect to slavery, which Brands perfunctorily laments, but presents in passing as a catalyst for friction between Mexico, the US and, ultimately, the Confederacy.

All that said, read this and understand a lot about how Texas came to be what it is.

Wonderful detailed description of the colonization and revolution of Texas with new insights and interpretations.

Lone Star Nation by H.W. Brands
This is a nice easy-going history of the revolution fought by Texans to gain their independence from Mexico 1835-36. It goes into how and why the war began, who the major players were, including Crocket, Travis, Fannin, the Austins—father and son, Bowie, Santa Ana and Sam Houston, even Menchaca, who is a distant relative of mine.t.

Brands is generous but disciplined in giving us a good picture of these characters and the typical Tennessee frontier fighter along with the trained but poorly led Mexican soldier. Having grown up near the San Jacinto Battlefield just outside Houston and stayed nearly drunk on Texas history during elementary school through college, I still found that “Lone Star Nation” enlightened me on what really happened and how it affected the formation of the United States.

“Lone Star Nation” can be read in tandem with “Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis” by William C. Davis, which I have reviewed on Good Reads, both of which should give fellow Texans and other interested parties a clearer picture of Texas’ difficult beginnings as a nation, then a state within a nation.

Based on the reading of Brands’ “Lone Star Nation” and before that his “The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush…” I feel safe in agreeing with Brands that there would not have been a California had there not been a Texas first.

My girlfriend thinks it's amusing that kids in Texas have to take at least one year of Texas History in junior high or high school. She's from Florida -- but I'm from Texas and it never struck me as that weird. Don't kids in Iowa have to take an Iowa History class? Maybe not.

Anyway. Regardless of the class, growing up in Austin, Texas a lot of Texas history works its way into your brain. Everyone knows the core elements of the revolution, for example: The Alamo. Goliad. San Jacinto. Houston. Crockett. Travis. Bowie. Santa Anna.

This book fleshed out that vague history very nicely. It provides a wide breadth of historical context, starting several decades in advance of the revolution with Moses Austin's arrival in the region and takes us up to Sam Houston's death during the US Civil War. Most of the book does, though, take place during the 1830s. And it does a great job of presenting these characters and situations in a realistic light, rather than as glowing-gold statues of perfection. The slavery issue, for example, is not shied away from and much discussion is given to how many in the US found the idea of annexing Texas repellent for this and a variety of other reasons.

It's also the first time I've really felt like I understood what the real situation in Texas was at that time. It was a fucking mess, for lack of a better term. Very little centralized control. Lots of crime and speculation. Continuing conflicts with the Native American populations. A mess.

Finally, one of the very interesting things about this book: It's the first time (I think) that I've really seen the Heroes of the Texas Revolution painted as real people. I knew kind of who belonged where. Travis, Bowie, Crockett = Alamo. Houston = General, later President. But I guess I hadn't been aware that Crockett had been a legitimate celebrity before he ever came to Texas. Or that William Travis was only 26 when he commanded the troops at the Alamo. I also hadn't been aware of the closeness of many of these guys to the power structure in the US Government. Both Crockett and Houston were at times considered viable candidates for the US Presidency. I guess when Texans present Texas History they keep it a bit artificially isolated from American History.

Anyway: Very good book. And continuing along my US history reading kick that started last year...

Brands quotes more from actual documents than other authors that I have read on the same subject. The author reproduces a portion of a report from an official of the government of Mexico dated 1830, for example. Further, he does not merely idolize the individuals behind the Texan Revolution against Mexico, he shows their flaws as well.

I’m going to keep this review simple. I love H. W. Brands. I’d love to sit and listen to a whole semester of that guy’s lectures. I thought I understood the history of Texas pretty well having lived there for 10 years, but I was wrong. Brands set me straight. Another job well done.

4.5 stars

I grew up in Texas and took the Texas History course that all public school 7th-grade students take, and I know more than the basics of the history of my state; however, this book had information and facts that were completely unfamiliar to me. For example, while I knew that Sam Houston had been a Congressman from Tennessee, I did not know that he had close ties to Andrew Jackson. I also did not know that Davy Crockett had close ties to Jackson at one point and then had a falling out with him and all the Jacksonians.

The book reads as a compelling adventure story focused primarily (at least for the first half of the book) on the Americans, led by Stephen F. Austin, who settled in Texas in the 1820s. If there was one thing I disliked about the book, it was that there seemed to be too much focus on Austin and his followers when I had hoped for more on the actual revolution and fight for independence against General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and Mexico. The battle of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad, and even the final battle at San Jacinto received very few pages comparatively, and that was disappointing. The Alamo is the most famous of those, but my keener interest is in Goliad as my great-great-great grandfather was among the approximately 350 men who were murdered there on Santa Ana's orders. I appreciated that Dr. Brands painted the Mexican president and general as the self-aggrandizing narcissist that he was and didn't try in any way to make him anything else.

The narrator for the audiobook was Don Leslie, and I mostly enjoyed his reading. He gave some (but not all) of the main characters specific voices, and that was done fairly well, Davy Crockett's being the most fun. There were some inconsistencies in his pronunciation of some of the Spanish names in that some he pronounced as they would be in Spanish (Brazos, San Jacinto, Santa Ana, for example, even though most Texans that I know don't pronounce them that way) while others he pronounced as most English speakers would say them (Rio Grande, San Antonio, etc.). There were other names from the Spanish that he just pronounced weirdly, specifically Brazoria (Bra-zor-EE-a instead of Bra-ZOR-ee-a) and Mexia (MEX-ee-a instead of Me-HE-a). Someone from outside of the state might not notice, but those really stood out to me. Overall, I'd give his performance 4 out of 5.

I'm not sure how interesting someone who is not a Texan would find this book, but I enjoyed reviewing some of the things I already knew as well as learning a number of new things about the history of my state. Dr. Brands, as always, does an outstanding job of bringing history to life.