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Lone Star Nation Kindle Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 260 ratings

The two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War emythologizes Texas’s journey to statehood and restores the genuinely heroic spirit to a pivotal chapter in American history. • “A balanced, unromanticized account [of] America’s great epic.” —The New York Times Book Review

From Stephen Austin, Texas’s reluctant founder, to the alcoholic Sam Houston, who came to lead the Texas army in its hour of crisis and glory, to President Andrew Jackson, whose expansionist aspirations loomed large in the background, here is the story of Texas and the outsize figures who shaped its turbulent history. Beginning with its early colonization in the 1820s and taking in the shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad, its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches, and its day of liberation as an upstart republic, Brands’ lively history draws on contemporary accounts, diaries, and letters to animate a diverse cast of characters whose adventures, exploits, and ambitions live on in the very fabric of our nation.

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Review

"A balanced, unromanticized account [of] America's great epic." --The New York Times Book Review

"Sweeping and specific. . . . [Brands] writes the story with clarity and vigor. . . . Clearly adds to our knowledge of an era when men rode to the sound of guns and honor was a comprehensible concept." --The Washington Post Book World

"[Brands] offers both sides of the Texas story, striking perspectives from both the revolutionists and the Mexicans who opposed them. . . . Lone Star Nation combines depth, description and detail in a magnificent, fascinating book." --The Miami Herald

"Extraordinary. . . . A rich story that thrives above all else on the novelistic depth of character he gives to his subjects." --
Austin American-Statesman

"Rousing. . . . [Brands] is a master of the ground-view, narrative history." --Dallas Morning News

"Brands [is] on the path to becoming the preeminent popular historian of his generation. . . . There is no denying [his] talent for clear, cogent and uncluttered prose." --Chicago Tribune

"Lively and readable . . . contains vivid portraits." --
Harper's Magazine

"The most compelling analysis of the results of the war as well as the best articulated defense for the motives of [Stephen] Austin, Sam Houston and the other Texas patriots." --
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Notably clear eyed. . . . [Brands] is conversant with the intricacies of his subject [as] he describes the contentiousness, independence and sense of entitlement that eventually turned Texas, however briefly, into a free and self-contained nation." --The New York Times

"Vibrant, energetic, and masterful. . . . Immensely readable." --The Washington Times

"Extremely vivid and beautifully written. . . . Brands [is] a master of description." --
The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

"Gripping. . . . A book that is sweeping and specific in allowing a reader to be deliciously immersed in the magnificent story. . . . Even well-versed readers will find new perspective here." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

From the Inside Flap

From bestselling historian and long-time Texan H. W. Brands, a richly textured history of one of the most fascinating and colorful eras in U.S. history the Texas Revolution and the forging of a new America.

For better or for worse, Texas was very much like America. The people ruled, and little could stop them. If they ignored national boundaries, if they trampled the rights of indigenous peoples and of imported bondsmen, if they waged war for motives that started from base self-interest, all this came with the territory of democracy, a realm inhabited by ordinarily imperfect men and women. The one saving grace of democracy the one that made all the difference in the end was that sooner or later, sometimes after a terrible strife, democracy corrected its worst mistakes.
from Lone Star Nation

Lone Star Nation is the gripping story of Texas s precariousjourney to statehood, from its early colonization in the 1820s to the shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad by the Mexican army, from its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches to its day of liberation as an upstart republic. H. W. Brands tells the turbulent story of Texas through the eyes of a colorful cast of characters who have become a permanent fixture in the American landscape: Stephen Austin, the state s reluctant founder; Sam Houston, the alcoholic former governor who came to lead the Texas army in its hour of crisis and glory; William Travis, James Bowie, and David Crockett, the unforgettable heroic defenders of the doomed Alamo; Santa Anna, the Mexican generalissimo and dictator whose ruthless tactics galvanized the colonists against him; and the white-haired President Andrew Jackson whose expansionist aspirations loomed large in the background. Beyond these luminaries, Brands unearths the untold stories of the forgotten Texans the slaves, women, unknown settlers, and children left out of traditional histories who played crucial roles in Texas s birth. By turns bloody and heroic, tragic and triumphant, this riveting history of one of our greatest states reads like the most compelling fiction, and further secures H. W. Brands s position as one of the premier American historians.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000FCJZ40
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 8 Feb. 2005
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1.0 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400096343
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 260 ratings

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H. W. Brands
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H.W. Brands taught at Texas A&M University for sixteen years before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. His books include Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American, and TR. Traitor to His Class and The First American were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
260 global ratings

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Top reviews from other countries

  • Stefanie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Engaging
    Reviewed in the United States on 24 March 2025
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    I loved this book, and will be getting a physical copy for my library. Brands grabbed my attention and never let it go. Coving the history of Texas, from the formation of the land through the end of the Civil War, this was a thorough book that covered many different perspectives, people, and political manuverings that made Texas. Highly recommend this enjoyable history.
  • BJFrantz
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating history well told
    Reviewed in Canada on 9 January 2020
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Well researched and factually told history of Texas focusing on the people’s, struggles and spirit of Americans, Mexicans and immigrants who became Texans.
  • shouldased
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Words are Five-Star, the binding is not.
    Reviewed in the United States on 16 May 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Liked the story and H.W. Brands writes clearly and entertainingly about the invasion of Texas by Americans and the politics of the Mexicans, and the Texans and the Jacksonians and how they dovetailed their conniving to make Texas a Republic and then a State.

    The bulk of the epic follows the careers for four men, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Santa Anna and Andrew Jackson to make history turn as it did. Austin above all pure in motive and loyal to those he has pledged it, until double-crossed, Houston with his career ups and downs, person demons that kept getting in the way of success, until his greatest act - as governor to refuse the demands of people of Texas to approve secession take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy. Santa Anna the charismatic manipulator of Mexican politics always in his own interest. And Jackson, Houston's friend and mentor with the power to make things happen.

    I find no fault with the research and writing of Brand. But the Anchor Books binding is atrocious. Cover artwork is to busy and cluttered to be attractive but that is a minor issue. I am not easy on paperbacks, I fold them backwards to read with one hand, use them as coasters, etc. But this is the only one that has fallen apart in so many pieces that I thought to invest in Elmers Glue stock before I attempt repair; gluing in sections and individual pages until it's as disjointed as Fankensteins monster. Even the cheapest mass market paperbacks have stood up against my abuse far better than this edition.

    If you go easy on books you may still lose a page of this one on occasion, but you'll love the history, good guys and bad guys that make up Texas, Mexico and the U.S. of the 1830's.
    I have no complaint
  • General Brett
    5.0 out of 5 stars Educational
    Reviewed in the United States on 28 October 2024
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Very good education book
  • T. Bradley
    5.0 out of 5 stars Deep dive into Texas origins
    Reviewed in the United States on 17 August 2019
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I have lived in Texas most of my life and thought I knew a lot of Texas history but wow! The author brought the major characters really into light. I had never heard of the Baron of Bastrop nor knew Stephen F Austin died essentially a pauper. And that William B Travis was really a player! The massacre at Goliad is a story whose details are NOT well taught in our schools. The outrage from that slaughter really drove Texans more than the Alamo and should have!

    I only wish the book had included more than the one basic map. I ended up keeping a Texas historical map reference book handy. I had hoped there would also have been more about the events during the Republic years but the book focused more on the lives of the major characters of whom really Houston continued on until Secession where the book closes.

    Brand's style is very engaging and I recommend all of his books.

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