Next week’s reading assignment is James E. Crisp’s Sleuthing the Alamo. Before you jump to Chapter 1, be sure that you read “Pride and Prejudice: A Personal Prologue” (pp. 1-25). I think you’ll discover that every single one of you has something interesting in common with Dr. Crisp.

As you read the Crisp book, here are some questions to consider. You should write a response to one of these prompts in your Google Doc as usual.

1. Why doesn’t Crisp think that “Anglo racism” is a sufficient explanation for the causes of the Texas revolution for independence? Do you agree with him that “racism” was not the “core explanation” (p. 45) of the Texas Revolution?
2. Crisp believes, unlike Bill Groneman, that the De la Pena diary is both authentic and reliable. Do you agree on both counts? (Note that these debates attracted attention from national newspapers like The New York Times when they happened in 1998.)
3. How did Davy Crockett die? (Be sure to use specific evidence and arguments from the book to support your answer.)
4. Why do you think Crisp’s critics (discussed in Chapter 4) care so much about the way Davy Crockett died? Do you think it matters how he died? (Again, use specific evidence from the books to explain and support your answers.)
5. In the afterword, Crisp discusses Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s theory that making history can be broken down into several “moments”: the creation of facts, the assembly of facts, retrieval of facts, and the delivery of facts. Does this view mean it is impossible for historians simply to get to “the facts” of the matter without their own perspectives getting in the way?
6. Crisp begins and ends his book by talking about a family photograph that has been cut in half. He believes it is important to point out that figures like Juan Seguin and Jose Enrique de la Pena have been cut out, so to speak, of our pictures of the Texas Revolution. Should we put such figures back into the picture when we teach children about the Texas Revolution?

Image credit: “Crockett at the Alamo,” from The Idle Hour Book, or Scrapiana; Being a Nerve-Worker, Care Destroyer, and Genuine Countenance Disturber . . . Containing all the Information Necessary to Raise a Laugh at the Shortest Notice. . . . New York: Turner & Fisher, ca. 1848. Texas Collection Library, taken from this online exhibit about the De la Pena diary at the University of Texas. The whole exhibit is worth a look if you’d like to see some images and historical sources about the Texas Revolution, the Alamo, and the diary.

Today in class we watched clips from Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier. This week’s readings will touch on the 1955 Crockett craze that the movie inspired.

As you do the readings, here are some questions to think about. You should also choose ONE of the questions and write a response of 300-500 words in your Google Doc.

1. The first part of the Roberts and Olson article focuses on what the author’s call Walt Disney’s “worldview” (p. 233) in the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing on evidence and examples in the text, describe Disney’s worldview and the events that shaped it. Then, think about the clips from the movie we watched last week, and make a case for or against the view that the film was an expression of Disney’s personal political ideas.
2. In this week’s readings, a variety of reasons are given for the incredible popularity of the Crockett movie in 1955, which amounted to a merchandising “craze.” Among the possible reasons for the “craze” include: (a) a simple fad for which there is no good explanation, (b) a desire among audiences for escapist entertainment, (c) the power of television and marketing to manipulate consumer taste, and (d) the rich historical symbolism of the Crockett “frontier” character, which provided both Disney and his audiences with a “usable past” (Roberts and Olson, p. 237) that had political implications in the present. Which of these factors (if any) best explains the Crockett craze? What evidence from these readings or others we have done support your explanation?
3. As the readings show, the Crockett craze eventually sparked controversies about the historical accuracy of Disney’s movie. Based on the evidence in the readings, do you think the defenders and critics of Davy Crockett, the man, in 1955 really disagreed more fundamentally about who should be authorized to write or represent history? If so, what were some of the major positions on that question, and which of them do you agree with?
4. Was Walt Disney essentially a twentieth-century version of Parson Weems? Why or why not?
5. Using internal evidence in the entries, as well as the articles by King, Roberts and Olson, assess the reliability of the American National Biography and Wikipedia entries on Crockett. Do you consider one of the two sources better than the other, and if so, why?

Image credit: Davy Crockett movie poster, from IMPawards.com