David Crockett: Hero of the Common Man (American Heroes) - Hardcover

Groneman, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0765310678 ISBN 13: 9780765310675

Publisher: Forge Books, 2005

Synopsis

Perhaps no other figure in American history is more shrouded in myth and legend than David ("Davy") Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman whose death at the Alamo in 1836 ensured his place in the Valhalla of American heroes.
Crockett himself was responsible for much of the folklore about his life. A gregarious, fun-loving man, he was more than capable of spinning tall tales over a "horn" of liquor. The truth of his life, as William Groneman emphasizes in this book, was far more fascinating than the myth. David Crockett was a true self-made man who left home at the age of twelve. His adventures--hunting and exploring, serving as a soldier under Andrew Jackson in the Creek Indian War of 1813, a political career that took him to the United States Congress, an incessant search for "elbow room" that drew him to Texas-these were the real fabric of a heroic life.
In writing of the "historical Crockett," Groneman, a world authority on the Alamo and its defenders, dispels the myths to uncover the genuine hero. He writes at length of the defense of the Alamo, describes how Crockett's reputation and heroism have been tainted by revisionist historians, and presents new evidence that the Tennessean actually left the Alamo during the siege to bring in reinforcements. Although safely outside the walls, he fought his way back in to rejoin his friends for the final, fatal, battle.

About this title

About the Author

William Groneman III, at the time of his retirement, was the company commander of Engine Company 308 and worked at Ground Zero just hours after the attack on the world Trade Center on September 11, 2001. A longtime student of the battle of the Alamo he has written books and articles exploring some of the myths and misconceptions of it.

Reviews

In this new entry in the American Heroes series, Groneman wants to retrieve a "genuine American hero" from "the dense forests and misleading paths of revisionist history" surrounding him. Series editor Dale L. Walker notes that the Tennessean's image was fabricated by himself and others, "a mixture of tall tale and half-truth leavened by the occasional fact." The image of Crockett as an uncouth backwoods buffoon was spread in his own lifetime by a play featuring a character named Nimrod Wildfire inspired partly by Crockett, and later by folklore and Crockett almanacs. Wading through "rivers of myths" to present the historical figure, Groneman, a retired member of the New York City Fire Department who has written extensively about the Alamo and Crockett (Eyewitness to the Alamo), erases this image, unveiling a handsome portrait of "the Honorable David Crockett, husband, father, farmer, hunter, soldier, legislator, United States congressman, author, and genuine American hero." He tells how Crockett volunteered to fight in the War of 1812, displayed courage and resilience as a fighter and frontiersman, parlaying his good humor and lack of pretension into a political career. Groneman succeeds in re-establishing Crockett's reputation. Two concluding chapters are devoted to clarifying the controversy surrounding Crockett's death.
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As a writer, retired New York fireman Groneman has been an Alamo specialist, yet there is no hair-splitting or hyperbole in his life of the Alamo's best-known defender. He presents Crockett as a believable man of his time and place. A frontiersman born and bred, Crockett hired out to farmers and traders from age 12 on into his twenties, mastering hunting and the three Rs along the way. Optimism, fellow feeling, integrity, humor, and the gift of gab made his name locally and helped him into the U.S. House, where his fixation on legislation to help western squatters keep their land alienated him from Jackson Democrats. He shrank from nothing, it seems, including celebrity, resentment of which provoked character assassination by political opponents then and revisionist historians later. Groneman argues that Crockett is an important historical figure who was often authentically heroic. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Forge Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0765310678
• ISBN 13: 9780765310675
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208