Over the Range: A History of the Promontory Summit Route of the Pacific Book

This readable history tells the story of how Texas got settled, was part of Mexico and became an independent country. It concludes with a short summary of statehood. The author puts the pieces together in an interesting and informative way.

Having lived in San Antonio for 6 months, I marveled at how the colonists could make a go of homesteading. While the land is very flat it is also very dry. It did not look fertile to me. There is little to sustain life while waiting for crops to grow. Heat is a huge factor in any endeavor. Brands refers to plentiful game, which had to be the case or no one would survive, but is hard to imagine with such limited water and plant life.

There are two areas needing more elaboration. The big area is slavery the other, less consequential, but important is the portrait of Sam Houston.

There are many who feel the Texas rebellion was totally about slavery. Brands discusses the turmoil in Mexico, Santa Anna's shredding of the constitution and cultural/religious differences between the "Anglo" north and its Spanish government as the causes of this rebellion. It seemed that the Texans, while frustrated, were working within the system to change it. Brands does not show how these issues trump slavery. While he mentions slavery he does not at all discuss it as a cause. Because this is a common opinion, Brands needs a better discussion of the role of slavery in this fight.

The portrait of Houston is very engrossing but learning towards the end that he had 8 children is a surprise. Fatherhood had hardly been mentioned up to that point. It isn't that the story hangs on this, but it does imply he had roots. In "American Legend" Levy shows an enabling spouse operating independently of Davy Crockett (but not his debts which she worked to pay on his behalf). Was this Houston's life as well? Where were the children and their mother(s?) living? Were they in a town of settlers? Living with a migrating or settled tribe? The back story is needed to get a full measure of this man.

I wonder how much flack this Texas based author caught for his portraits of William Travis and Jim Bowie. They are considered heroes in Texas. Their lives before the Alamo, as told by Brands, were not the stuff of heroes. While I have toured the Alamo, and read its literature and came away from it knowing that Houston put a low priority on defending the Alamo, I don't remember learning that his strategy (ignored by the Alamo defenders) was to abandon it... in fact they were to blow it up to deprive Santa Anna of its use. This makes the story of the Alamo a story of a renegade operation. Given that Texas needed militias for defense, there was nothing Houston could do about it. I wonder how all this sat (and continues to sit) in Texas that adores its heroes and its Alamo legend.

I came to this from having finished the Brands' Pulitzer Prize nominated 'Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt"" which is clearly the better book. Lone Star Nation" is good, and if you're interested in this ten year or so window, it is a must read, otherwise, read the FDR.