"The Texas Revolution has long been cast as an epic episode in the origins of the American West. As the story goes, larger-than-life figures like Sam Houston, David Crockett, and William Barret Travis fought to free Texas from repressive Mexican rule. In [this book], historian Sam Haynes reveals the reality beneath this powerful creation myth. He shows how the lives of ordinary people--white Americans, Mexicans, Native Americans, and those of African descent--were upended by extraordinary events over twenty-five years. After the battle of San Jacinto, racial lines snapped taut as a new nation--the Lone Star republic--sought to expel Indians, marginalize Mexicans, and tighten its grip on the enslaved"--
