The Alamo has lodged itself deeply in the American imagination as the romantic story of men fighting and dying willingly in the name of liberty. It is the story of American frontiersmen, including famous individuals such as Davy Crockett, gathering to fight for freedom against the dictatorial leader of Mexico and his large army. Holding out against incredible odds, until the climactic moment when all except one agreed to meet sure death in the name of their cause, ordinary citizen-soldiers took a heroic, and ultimately successful, stand against tyranny. Without the Alamo, the following battle of San Jacinto would never have taken place. Indeed, "Remember the Alamo " became the rallying cry for that battle, helping to give the frontiersmen resolve. And without that battle, Texas' road to independence along with US expansion to the Pacific would have been unimaginably different. Why did the siege of the Alamo take place? What actually occurred over those days? And what was the outcome of the brave stand taken by Davy Crockett and others? Mark Stewart explores these questions, capturing the full drama of the event by: setting the scene; describing the opposing forces; explaining the history of the conflict and presenting portraits of the main people involved. In doing so, Stewart shows that this was one historical event that had everything to do with the particular individuals involved, their actions and their decisions, making the story both fascinating and moving. Ending with a section on the Alamo today and enriched by numerous illustrations, maps, quotations and a timeline, "The Alamo" is an informative and stirring book. The American Battlefilds series: The concept of American Battlefields is to show how military conflicts influence history. It does this by describing three stages of historical events: first, the situation that exists as prelude to the battle, second, the details of the battle itself; third, how future events are influenced, or even determined, by the outcome of the battle. It also shows how lost battles can lead to larger victories, and how battles won can fail to help an overall lost cause.