Alamo Sourcebook 1836 by Tim & Terry Todish, with all new illustrations by Ted Spring.

Alamo Sourcebook 1836, Text by Tim and Terry Todish, Art by Ted Spring. Eakin Press, Austin, Texas, 1998. Paperback, $21.95. 215 pages with index, bibliography, and many, many illustrations and maps. I counted 133, plus a full color foldout of the Alamo compound on the back cover.

This book contains one of the longest, and most descriptive, sub-titles I have run across in a long time, at least with books published in the last half of this century. The complete title is: Alamo Sourcebook 1836: A Comprehensive Guide to the Alamo and the Texas Revolution, Including the Siege and Final Battle . . . the armies . . . their weapons, uniforms and equipment . . . the flags . . . biographies of leaders of both sides . . . Alamo movies and music . . . organizations to join . . . places to visit . . . and more! Wow! That says it all, and is as good a description as I am likely to come up with.

Alamo Sourcebook is an excellent introduction to the Alamo story, and also a good sourcebook for those who already have a firm knowledge of the epic of the Alamo. Vast amounts of information are packed into this one volume, much of it is available elsewhere, but its great having it all together. The Sourcebook contains personal data on the Alamo defenders and survivors, many first-person quotations, excellent illustrations and notes on the weapons, uniforms, and flags used, a plethora of compiled facts on every aspect of the Alamo. For those interested in exploring further, there is a fine bibliography to show the way.

Last year, I was asked to give a talk to a class of fifth graders in Washington, Pennsylvania on Gettysburg and the Alamo (don't ask me how the two relate, but I was able to combine the two). I passed a copy of Alamo Sourcebook around the class during my talk, and was amazed at how quickly, just by skimming through it for a few minutes, the students were able to zero in on interesting questions to ask. Many questions were asked about the firearms used during the battle. I am not an expert on weapons, by any means, but was able, thanks to what I had read in the Sourcebook, to answer their questions satisfactorily. I'm not sure how significant a testimonial this is but, to my way of thinking, any book that can make me look like an expert in front of a schoolroom full of highly intelligent fifth graders is well worth having, and I highly recommend Alamo Sourcebook 1836.

--Bob Durham