Hi, I'm Anna Marie Cox. Welcome to With Friends Like These. I went to Hill Country

Middle School in Austin, Texas in the 80s. I have some very vivid memories. Most of them

are about social embarrassment. But I also remember a lot of what I was taught in my state

required year long, seventh grade Texas history class. I'm not going to say I remember Texas

history because what I was taught and what Texas history is are two different things. In

class, we were taught that Texas wasn't really part of the South because it didn't have

a culture of slavery. We were taught that the only reason Texas fought alongside the

South and the Civil War, or as we called it, the war between the states, was because

of Texas's deep belief in states' rights. We were taught that the Alamo was a battle

fought for Texas independence, that Texas fought to get out from under the thumb of Mexican

tyranny, as represented by the evil dictator slash president, General Santa Anna. And we were

taught that while Texas lost the Battle of the Alamo, it was a valiant stand to buy time

for the rest of the army who eventually won at the glorious Battle of San Jacinto. Don't

mess with Texas, etc., etc. The end. As you probably already realize, none of those things

are true and all of them exist to support a larger narrative of white supremacy. Our

guest this week, Brian Burrows, is going to help us understand that narrative and we're

going to learn what really happened at the Alamo. Our discussion is based on the best-selling

book, Forget the Alamo, The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, which Brian co-wrote

with Chris Tomlinson and Jason Stanford. Burrows is a writer and historian as well as the

author of over a dozen books. He's been a correspondent for Vanity Fair and the Wall

Street Journal. He's coming right up. Brian, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me.

I want to go through what I know as the biggest myths of the Alamo. And you to give me a

...