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David Crockett: The Lion of the West
Steeped in legend, shrouded in folklore, the real David Crockett, American frontiersman and cultural icon, finally emerges in this engrossing biography. His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett," and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories. Born into a humble Tennessee family in 1786, Crockett never "killed him a b'ar" when he was only three. But he did cut a huge swath across early-nineteenth-century America―as a bear hunter, a frontier explorer, a soldier serving under Andrew Jackson, an unlikely congressman, and, finally, a martyr in his now-controversial death at the Alamo. Wallis's David Crockett is more than a riveting story. It is a revelatory, authoritative biography that separates fact from fiction, providing us with an extraordinary evocation of a true American hero and the rough-and-tumble times in which he lived. 60 black-and-white illustrations
380 pages, Hardcover
First published May 16, 2011
68 people are currently reading
944 people want to read
About the author
Michael Wallis
46 books77 followersMichael Wallis is the bestselling author of Route 66, Billy the Kid, Pretty Boy, and David Crockett. He hosts the PBS series American Roads. He voiced The Sheriff in the animated Pixar feature Cars. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 164 reviews
January 20, 2023
“As a man, he was both authentic and contrived. He was wise in the ways of the wilderness and most comfortable when deep in the woods on a hunt, yet he could also hold his own in the halls of Congress…Remarkably, he enjoyed fraternizing with men of power and prestige in the fancy parlors of Philadelphia and New York. Crockett was, like none other, a nineteenth-century enigma. He fought under Andrew Jackson in the ruinous Indian Wars, only later to become Jackson’s bitter foe on the issue of removal of Indian tribes from their homelands…He had only a few months formal education, yet he read Ovid and the Bard. He was neither a buffoon nor a great intellect but a man who was always evolving on the stage of a nation in its adolescence, a pioneer whose inchoate dreams aptly reflected a restless nation with a gaze firmly pointed toward the West.”
- Michael Wallis, David Crockett: The Lion of the West
When he was growing up, my dad watched Davy Crockett, the five part serial that aired as part of the Disneyland series. Like many other kids of that period, he fell in love with the character.
Later, he had me. When I was young, he showed me Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, a feature film edited together from the television series. Like him, I fell in love with the character. I had a coonskin cap. I had a long-rifle cap gun. I was Crockett on several Halloweens, and many random days in between. Whenever my brother and I built a fort out of pillows and cushions, that fort was the Alamo. And I was always Crockett, swinging an empty rifle at invisible enemies, sometimes dying but never for long, because Crockett was eternal.
This connection was not – in any way – a function of deep thought into Crockett’s role in Jacksonian politics, westward expansion, or the Texas Revolution. It was an impulse created by the actor Fess Parker, whose winsome demeanor, commonsense, and humility paired nicely with his indomitable martial heroics. However ahistorical the performance, it was enough to sow a lifelong interest in the real-life Crockett.
Recently, when I tried to pass on Crockett to the next generation – via a DVD showing of King of the Wild Frontier – I came up against a brick wall. My daughter – who has pretty good taste in most things – lasted about ten minutes into the Technicolor adventure before quietly sliding off the couch, walking out of the room, and casting a sad glance over her shoulder, as though she pitied me my taste in art.
While I finished watching the movie by myself, I meditated on Crockett’s place in the modern world, roughly sixty years after his 20th century revival. Obviously, there are a thousand reasons – starting with Roblox – why my daughter didn’t want to watch a Disney movie from 1955. But in a larger sense, is seems an open question whether David Crockett is still relevant.
As long as there is Texas, Crockett will be remembered. Still, it is interesting to ponder what place this minor Congressman who secured immortality by his death at the Alamo should have in American history. Unfortunately, it’s a question Michael Wallis’s David Crockett: Lion of the West never convincingly answers.
***
Crockett was born in 1786, in what is now Tennessee. His rise to prominence was circuitous and, in a way, quintessentially American. He was a backwoods hunter and served in the militia during the Creek Indian Wars. Using jokes and liquor, he transitioned into politics, and managed to win three terms in the U.S. Congress, where he never passed a single piece of legislation.
A man of many schemes, all his businesses failed, leaving him with enormous debts. His second wife left him because he never stayed home long enough to act as either husband or parent. He managed to capitalize on his flickering fame by publishing A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself, which is what one had to do before Tik Tok.
Overall, this constitutes a unique and adventurous life, but we would not still celebrate this man, or write songs about him, or make movies about him, if he had not saved the best, most dramatic act for last. At the age of 49, he rode into Texas hoping to restart his political career in the midst of a revolution. Instead, he blundered into the blind corner of an old Spanish mission, where he achieved a kind of transfiguration that is almost religious in nature, at least to his core believers.
Wallis’s retelling of this wild and rollicking story is solid and unspectacular. It is not a bad book by any means. It is, however, far too muted for such an outsize figure. There any number of interpretations that Wallis could have proffered. Yet he is mostly content with recounting facts, while refusing any attempt at Crockett’s essence.
***
On the positive side, Wallis has certainly unearthed every scrap of Crockett minutiae he could find. He digs deep into the Crockett family genealogy by corresponding with his descendants. He tracked down a marriage license that Crockett never got around to using, because the girl left him to marry someone else, likely a wise decision given his long sojourns from home. Wallis even looked over a deed of a slave that Crockett sold, noting that Crockett’s famous motto – “be sure you are right; then go ahead” – was for some reason written on the document.
This should be fascinating stuff. The slaveholding aspect was especially jarring, and obviously something I didn’t know on those long-ago Halloweens, before I realized that having heroes was a fool’s game. For whatever reason, though, these tidbits did not coalesce into a wholly satisfying biography. At 304 pages of text, this feels barebones, and more a listing of information than a vital work. Having read Wallis’s excellent and thorough book on the Donner Party, The Best Land Under Heaven, this bordered on the disappointing.
***
One of the ways Wallis could have improved David Crockett is by a fuller contextualization of his life. After all, the tale of a person is also a tale of their times. Wallis tethers his narrative so close to his subject – to the extent that Crockett’s autobiography is the chief source – that you never understand his world.
Without the big picture, the stories about Crockett often feel like they are occurring in a vacuum. For example, only the barest outlines of the Creek Indian War are provided. In describing Crockett’s role, Wallis sticks mainly with what Crockett said in his oft-exaggerated memoir. It becomes impossible to judge Crockett’s part in the conflict because we are only given slivers of it. The same goes for Crockett’s time in Congress. We never get a good explanation for why the populist hero from Tennessee (Crockett) became such a bitter enemy of the populist hero from Tennessee (Jackson). A more generous book might have given deeper background to these events, which in turn would have given more resonance to Crockett’s passage through them.
***
The best example of this book’s shortcomings is in the final chapter on the Alamo. Without the Alamo, there is no Crockett. Without the Alamo, Crockett would be a marginal figure, lost in the Congressional Record. To paraphrase Wallis himself, Crockett would have been a footnote of regional Tennessee politics in the 19th century. I doubt Disney would have bankrolled a series about regional Tennessee politics in the 19th century.
Nevertheless, Wallis’s presentation of the Alamo is rushed, almost to the point of being negligible. He doesn’t bother with Travis or Bowie or the siege or the battle. He doesn’t bother asking why Davy might have stayed. There is a brief discussion about how Crockett might have died – Wallis believes he was executed – but that’s about the extent of things. The Alamo has become a controversial moment in history; it is also incredibly dramatic. That Wallis did not seem to recognize Crockett’s last stand as a worthy climatic moment says a lot about why this didn’t work for me on a visceral level.
***
Despite the thirteen-hundred words I just wrote, I did not hate this. I’m also an outlier in my reactions. But I stand by them. There’s nothing in David Crockett I couldn’t have gotten on the internet in bullet-point fashion, with the same deficit in vigor and verve. The biographer’s job is almost mystical, to bring the dead to life, and make us care. Wallis did not do that here.
Good biographies are like an advertisement for their central character, mounting not only their story, but an argument for why it matters. By the end of this book, you will still be wondering why Crockett has endured so long, let alone whether he will continue to endure in the future.
- Michael Wallis, David Crockett: The Lion of the West
When he was growing up, my dad watched Davy Crockett, the five part serial that aired as part of the Disneyland series. Like many other kids of that period, he fell in love with the character.
Later, he had me. When I was young, he showed me Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, a feature film edited together from the television series. Like him, I fell in love with the character. I had a coonskin cap. I had a long-rifle cap gun. I was Crockett on several Halloweens, and many random days in between. Whenever my brother and I built a fort out of pillows and cushions, that fort was the Alamo. And I was always Crockett, swinging an empty rifle at invisible enemies, sometimes dying but never for long, because Crockett was eternal.
This connection was not – in any way – a function of deep thought into Crockett’s role in Jacksonian politics, westward expansion, or the Texas Revolution. It was an impulse created by the actor Fess Parker, whose winsome demeanor, commonsense, and humility paired nicely with his indomitable martial heroics. However ahistorical the performance, it was enough to sow a lifelong interest in the real-life Crockett.
Recently, when I tried to pass on Crockett to the next generation – via a DVD showing of King of the Wild Frontier – I came up against a brick wall. My daughter – who has pretty good taste in most things – lasted about ten minutes into the Technicolor adventure before quietly sliding off the couch, walking out of the room, and casting a sad glance over her shoulder, as though she pitied me my taste in art.
While I finished watching the movie by myself, I meditated on Crockett’s place in the modern world, roughly sixty years after his 20th century revival. Obviously, there are a thousand reasons – starting with Roblox – why my daughter didn’t want to watch a Disney movie from 1955. But in a larger sense, is seems an open question whether David Crockett is still relevant.
As long as there is Texas, Crockett will be remembered. Still, it is interesting to ponder what place this minor Congressman who secured immortality by his death at the Alamo should have in American history. Unfortunately, it’s a question Michael Wallis’s David Crockett: Lion of the West never convincingly answers.
***
Crockett was born in 1786, in what is now Tennessee. His rise to prominence was circuitous and, in a way, quintessentially American. He was a backwoods hunter and served in the militia during the Creek Indian Wars. Using jokes and liquor, he transitioned into politics, and managed to win three terms in the U.S. Congress, where he never passed a single piece of legislation.
A man of many schemes, all his businesses failed, leaving him with enormous debts. His second wife left him because he never stayed home long enough to act as either husband or parent. He managed to capitalize on his flickering fame by publishing A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, Written by Himself, which is what one had to do before Tik Tok.
Overall, this constitutes a unique and adventurous life, but we would not still celebrate this man, or write songs about him, or make movies about him, if he had not saved the best, most dramatic act for last. At the age of 49, he rode into Texas hoping to restart his political career in the midst of a revolution. Instead, he blundered into the blind corner of an old Spanish mission, where he achieved a kind of transfiguration that is almost religious in nature, at least to his core believers.
Wallis’s retelling of this wild and rollicking story is solid and unspectacular. It is not a bad book by any means. It is, however, far too muted for such an outsize figure. There any number of interpretations that Wallis could have proffered. Yet he is mostly content with recounting facts, while refusing any attempt at Crockett’s essence.
***
On the positive side, Wallis has certainly unearthed every scrap of Crockett minutiae he could find. He digs deep into the Crockett family genealogy by corresponding with his descendants. He tracked down a marriage license that Crockett never got around to using, because the girl left him to marry someone else, likely a wise decision given his long sojourns from home. Wallis even looked over a deed of a slave that Crockett sold, noting that Crockett’s famous motto – “be sure you are right; then go ahead” – was for some reason written on the document.
This should be fascinating stuff. The slaveholding aspect was especially jarring, and obviously something I didn’t know on those long-ago Halloweens, before I realized that having heroes was a fool’s game. For whatever reason, though, these tidbits did not coalesce into a wholly satisfying biography. At 304 pages of text, this feels barebones, and more a listing of information than a vital work. Having read Wallis’s excellent and thorough book on the Donner Party, The Best Land Under Heaven, this bordered on the disappointing.
***
One of the ways Wallis could have improved David Crockett is by a fuller contextualization of his life. After all, the tale of a person is also a tale of their times. Wallis tethers his narrative so close to his subject – to the extent that Crockett’s autobiography is the chief source – that you never understand his world.
Without the big picture, the stories about Crockett often feel like they are occurring in a vacuum. For example, only the barest outlines of the Creek Indian War are provided. In describing Crockett’s role, Wallis sticks mainly with what Crockett said in his oft-exaggerated memoir. It becomes impossible to judge Crockett’s part in the conflict because we are only given slivers of it. The same goes for Crockett’s time in Congress. We never get a good explanation for why the populist hero from Tennessee (Crockett) became such a bitter enemy of the populist hero from Tennessee (Jackson). A more generous book might have given deeper background to these events, which in turn would have given more resonance to Crockett’s passage through them.
***
The best example of this book’s shortcomings is in the final chapter on the Alamo. Without the Alamo, there is no Crockett. Without the Alamo, Crockett would be a marginal figure, lost in the Congressional Record. To paraphrase Wallis himself, Crockett would have been a footnote of regional Tennessee politics in the 19th century. I doubt Disney would have bankrolled a series about regional Tennessee politics in the 19th century.
Nevertheless, Wallis’s presentation of the Alamo is rushed, almost to the point of being negligible. He doesn’t bother with Travis or Bowie or the siege or the battle. He doesn’t bother asking why Davy might have stayed. There is a brief discussion about how Crockett might have died – Wallis believes he was executed – but that’s about the extent of things. The Alamo has become a controversial moment in history; it is also incredibly dramatic. That Wallis did not seem to recognize Crockett’s last stand as a worthy climatic moment says a lot about why this didn’t work for me on a visceral level.
***
Despite the thirteen-hundred words I just wrote, I did not hate this. I’m also an outlier in my reactions. But I stand by them. There’s nothing in David Crockett I couldn’t have gotten on the internet in bullet-point fashion, with the same deficit in vigor and verve. The biographer’s job is almost mystical, to bring the dead to life, and make us care. Wallis did not do that here.
Good biographies are like an advertisement for their central character, mounting not only their story, but an argument for why it matters. By the end of this book, you will still be wondering why Crockett has endured so long, let alone whether he will continue to endure in the future.
February 22, 2025
3.5 stars
"I remember David Crockett well . . . He was very often a guest of my father [Senator Ephraim Foster, a fellow Tennessean politico] . . . [Crockett was] always a pleasant, courteous, and interesting man, who, though uneducated in books, was a man of fine instincts and intellect . . . and I never saw him attired in garb that could be regarded as differing from that worn by a gentleman of his day - never in a coonskin cap or hunting shirt." -- the recollections of Willam Foster, on page 210
Author Wallis - a writer / historian who has gained fame voicing the gruffly authoritative Sheriff in the Disney/Pixar Cars trilogy (a favorite of my son's) - steers into one of his occasional biographical forays with David Crockett: The Lion of the West. Wallis notes in his engaging introduction that he was one of the many children in the mid-1950's who quickly latched onto that 'Crockett craze,' spurred on by the popular Disney-produced TV specials starring Fess Parker as the coonskin cap-bedecked frontiersman. The related blockbuster 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' song - selling over ten million records in 1955 - depicted its title character in almost-superhuman fashion, so Wallis (now firmly entrenched in middle age) set out to find out the actual truth about the man. The result? It was sort of a mixed bag in terms of a biography. The first half - featuring Crockett's family history and his adventurous childhood / teenage years in Tennessee and Virginia, then his later military service and working as a territorial justice of the peace - were of most interest, and depict Crockett (who almost NEVER went by 'Davy,' probably much to pop culture's dismay) as one sharpshootin' son of a gun who enjoyed the thrill of a hunt while eeking out an existence on the southern frontier of the early 1800's. However, the latter half of the narrative is Crockett's years in office (serving several terms throughout two decades) as a representative in U.S. Congress, which was - and I can't think of any better simile - like watching the proverbial paint dry. (I don't think this is Wallis' fault - politics can be a tricky subject matter if there is no particularly engrossing legislation being depicted.) Additionally, the final chapter detailing his death at the Alamo also seemed sort of rushed or curiously brief. So it will be the sturdy early sections that I will remember, and enjoyed the best, in this biography.
"I remember David Crockett well . . . He was very often a guest of my father [Senator Ephraim Foster, a fellow Tennessean politico] . . . [Crockett was] always a pleasant, courteous, and interesting man, who, though uneducated in books, was a man of fine instincts and intellect . . . and I never saw him attired in garb that could be regarded as differing from that worn by a gentleman of his day - never in a coonskin cap or hunting shirt." -- the recollections of Willam Foster, on page 210
Author Wallis - a writer / historian who has gained fame voicing the gruffly authoritative Sheriff in the Disney/Pixar Cars trilogy (a favorite of my son's) - steers into one of his occasional biographical forays with David Crockett: The Lion of the West. Wallis notes in his engaging introduction that he was one of the many children in the mid-1950's who quickly latched onto that 'Crockett craze,' spurred on by the popular Disney-produced TV specials starring Fess Parker as the coonskin cap-bedecked frontiersman. The related blockbuster 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett' song - selling over ten million records in 1955 - depicted its title character in almost-superhuman fashion, so Wallis (now firmly entrenched in middle age) set out to find out the actual truth about the man. The result? It was sort of a mixed bag in terms of a biography. The first half - featuring Crockett's family history and his adventurous childhood / teenage years in Tennessee and Virginia, then his later military service and working as a territorial justice of the peace - were of most interest, and depict Crockett (who almost NEVER went by 'Davy,' probably much to pop culture's dismay) as one sharpshootin' son of a gun who enjoyed the thrill of a hunt while eeking out an existence on the southern frontier of the early 1800's. However, the latter half of the narrative is Crockett's years in office (serving several terms throughout two decades) as a representative in U.S. Congress, which was - and I can't think of any better simile - like watching the proverbial paint dry. (I don't think this is Wallis' fault - politics can be a tricky subject matter if there is no particularly engrossing legislation being depicted.) Additionally, the final chapter detailing his death at the Alamo also seemed sort of rushed or curiously brief. So it will be the sturdy early sections that I will remember, and enjoyed the best, in this biography.
April 16, 2020
Debunks, gently, many of the myths perpetrated around Crockett, including some of his own. Nice to know a few of the things about the Lion of the West, but the book itself was... so-so. A little too pedantic some times, a little to vague at others.
In addition to reading this for my Strenuous Life (non-GR) Biographies challenge, I believe I can count it against my 2020 TBR Challenge, item #1, "inspired by a meme" -- the author cites in the introduction his discoveries that the man David Crockett was far, far different than the Disney "meme" Davy Crockett of song and show.
In addition to reading this for my Strenuous Life (non-GR) Biographies challenge, I believe I can count it against my 2020 TBR Challenge, item #1, "inspired by a meme" -- the author cites in the introduction his discoveries that the man David Crockett was far, far different than the Disney "meme" Davy Crockett of song and show.
September 9, 2011
Though "my" Fess Parker experience was the 1960's TV series "Daniel Boone," Wallis' youth was framed by the mid-50's Walt Disney "Davy Crockett." In his prologue, Wallis goes into great detail about the series and his family's subsequent 1955 summer pilgrimage to all things Crockett throughout Tennessee. I can envision a coon-skin cap hanging from his monitor as he wrote this only passable history.
Wallis accomplishes part of his stated objective. He strips away the legend -- "killed him a b'ar when he was only three" -- but in so doing, he implicitly engages in another type of whitewash. In trying to reveal the man who was actually larger in life than his legend permitted, Wallis fails to truly examine several core inconsistencies. Here was a man who loved the embrace of nature and personal responsibility, yet, for all intents and purposes, abandoned his family. Here was a man of courage who opposed Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policy, yet he died in the Alamo fighting for the right to retain the institution of slavery in the Texas territory. Here was a man, who as an unlikely Congressman defined his core goal as opening up the West Tennessee wilderness for the common man, yet, he could never apply the discipline nor skill to even come close to achieving that legislative outcome.
By failing to fully address these flaws, Wallis pulls back the curtain on one set of inaccuracies only to refuse to shine the light in a way that would prevent another set of enigmas from being effectively examined. Though he may have outgrown is boyhood infatuation, Wallis as historian, has only revised his infatuation for a different time. In truth, the real David Crockett seems to be a man slightly behind his time, best left to puff and legend.
An example of how a strong historian can grapple with a legend and leave you more informed about the man and his times, I would recommend Hampton Sides' "Blood and Thunder" about another legend of the American West - Kit Carson.
Wallis accomplishes part of his stated objective. He strips away the legend -- "killed him a b'ar when he was only three" -- but in so doing, he implicitly engages in another type of whitewash. In trying to reveal the man who was actually larger in life than his legend permitted, Wallis fails to truly examine several core inconsistencies. Here was a man who loved the embrace of nature and personal responsibility, yet, for all intents and purposes, abandoned his family. Here was a man of courage who opposed Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal policy, yet he died in the Alamo fighting for the right to retain the institution of slavery in the Texas territory. Here was a man, who as an unlikely Congressman defined his core goal as opening up the West Tennessee wilderness for the common man, yet, he could never apply the discipline nor skill to even come close to achieving that legislative outcome.
By failing to fully address these flaws, Wallis pulls back the curtain on one set of inaccuracies only to refuse to shine the light in a way that would prevent another set of enigmas from being effectively examined. Though he may have outgrown is boyhood infatuation, Wallis as historian, has only revised his infatuation for a different time. In truth, the real David Crockett seems to be a man slightly behind his time, best left to puff and legend.
An example of how a strong historian can grapple with a legend and leave you more informed about the man and his times, I would recommend Hampton Sides' "Blood and Thunder" about another legend of the American West - Kit Carson.
August 3, 2020
I wasn't part of the original Disney inspired David Crockett craze of the 1950s, but in the 1960s Crockett mania had a resurgence during my generation. The Crockett serial was re-run on 'The Wonderful World of Color'. I also remember going to Disneyland and visiting Frontierland, where coonskin caps were quite the souvenir item. Somewhere in this time-frame my talented mom sewed my own Davy Crockett costume, including a faux coonskin cap for Halloween. The little boy I was would have been disappointed to learn that Crockett did not wear one of these hats, a character in a popular stage play based on Crockett started this myth.
Author Michael Wallis was one of first wave Crockett fans, and does a great job of researching the real Crockett (David, not Davy) and separating the myth from the man. The only reason I didn't give the book four stars, is it seemed a little slow at the beginning, and until Crockett's later life Wallis seemed to have a hard time capturing the essence of Crockett. Besides being an accomplished author Wallis is also the voice of the Sheriff car in the animated feature 'Cars'.
One of my favorite Crockett quotes from his time in Congress was: "There's too much talk. Many men seem to be proud they can say so much about nothing. Their tongues keep working, whether they've any grist to grind or not. " Not only is this a great bio on Crockett, but also an interesting slice of American history during his lifetime. From the settling of present day Tennessee, through the war of 1812 and finally the early days of the Republic of Texas. If you're interested in the man, the myth, or the time-frame a good book to start with.
Author Michael Wallis was one of first wave Crockett fans, and does a great job of researching the real Crockett (David, not Davy) and separating the myth from the man. The only reason I didn't give the book four stars, is it seemed a little slow at the beginning, and until Crockett's later life Wallis seemed to have a hard time capturing the essence of Crockett. Besides being an accomplished author Wallis is also the voice of the Sheriff car in the animated feature 'Cars'.
One of my favorite Crockett quotes from his time in Congress was: "There's too much talk. Many men seem to be proud they can say so much about nothing. Their tongues keep working, whether they've any grist to grind or not. " Not only is this a great bio on Crockett, but also an interesting slice of American history during his lifetime. From the settling of present day Tennessee, through the war of 1812 and finally the early days of the Republic of Texas. If you're interested in the man, the myth, or the time-frame a good book to start with.
January 26, 2013
Michael Wallis has written a great biography of David Crockett, that is as much a pleasure to read as it is informative. The biography gives even coverage of Crockett's life and does not favor one time period over another. (For those looking for a bit more on the events concerning the fall of the Alamo, reading this book in conjunction with James Donovan's The Blood of Heroes and Osprey's Essential History: The Texas War of Independence, 1835-1836 is recommended by this reader.)
Wallis' book is of equal value to Baby Boomers who know Crockett primarily through Disney's entertaining but not very factual Davy Crockett TV show and for Gen X-ers (and later) who have seen their history texts consistently watered down by know-it-all but really know-nothing Educrats who have taken all of the History out of the Social Studies through Orwellian blather about thematics and knowing less is really knowing more. (Try to find a mention of Crockett in a high school history textbook today; if you're lucky he might garner a sentence concerning the Alamo but chances are he's not in there at all despite being one of the most well-known men of his time.)
Highly recommended for the history and being a great read.
Wallis' book is of equal value to Baby Boomers who know Crockett primarily through Disney's entertaining but not very factual Davy Crockett TV show and for Gen X-ers (and later) who have seen their history texts consistently watered down by know-it-all but really know-nothing Educrats who have taken all of the History out of the Social Studies through Orwellian blather about thematics and knowing less is really knowing more. (Try to find a mention of Crockett in a high school history textbook today; if you're lucky he might garner a sentence concerning the Alamo but chances are he's not in there at all despite being one of the most well-known men of his time.)
Highly recommended for the history and being a great read.
March 20, 2022
This is a fascinating, enlightening foray into separating Crockett the bear hunter, frontiersman, soldier, and politician from the popular Disney depiction preceded by the more cartoonish Nimrod Wildfire. The man mythologized while still alive awkwardly plotted a political career -- without apparently in the legislature or ever wearing a coonskin cap -- largely trying to get mostly Indian land at low prices for his fellow frontiersmen. When he balked at the Andrew Jackson Indian Removal he undercut his political career and made it worse by leaving his constituents behind for a few months to do a book tour. Like others fed up encroaching civilization, he went to Texas on a trail that ended at the Alamo. This does nothing to settle the details of his demise while it succeeds in proving the rest of his life was much more interesting, anyway.
January 21, 2022
The Lion of the West is a biography of frontiersman, soldier, and politician David Crockett by Michael Wallis. Crockett was known for:
- Hunting and killing black bears
- Spinning folksy homespun yarns
- Self promotion
- Dying at the Alamo
In other words, he was not a particularly important historical figure and didn’t really accomplish anything of lasting significance. In fact, it could be argued that, were it not for the Disney television series (Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier) in the mid-1950s, a show that spawned a coonskin cap craze, Crockett would have largely faded into obscurity.
As to the book, I have little to say. Wallis quotes liberally from Crockett’s autobiography and places the events of Crockett’s life into the context of the times in which he lived (like any decent historian). With that said, I didn’t find the book particularly inspired, and would characterize it as a lackluster effort.
- Hunting and killing black bears
- Spinning folksy homespun yarns
- Self promotion
- Dying at the Alamo
In other words, he was not a particularly important historical figure and didn’t really accomplish anything of lasting significance. In fact, it could be argued that, were it not for the Disney television series (Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier) in the mid-1950s, a show that spawned a coonskin cap craze, Crockett would have largely faded into obscurity.
As to the book, I have little to say. Wallis quotes liberally from Crockett’s autobiography and places the events of Crockett’s life into the context of the times in which he lived (like any decent historian). With that said, I didn’t find the book particularly inspired, and would characterize it as a lackluster effort.
January 29, 2022
Great book. The author manages to dispel many of the myths (many) surrounding Crockett's youth, escapades, and death while still providing an accurate, unfiltered, and unbiased portrayal of Crockett's colorful and adventurous life. The author's depiction of Crockett's adventures weaved throughout his ( and his family's) life story provide an engaging read
April 30, 2018
Fascinating look at the man behind the legend of Davy Crockett.
April 28, 2019
Interesting view of the settlement of the trans-Appalachians from 1800 to 1830s. Crockett a perfect example of a tough and independent character of the Scotch-Irish who were the vanguard of settlement in the early west of American.
March 14, 2018
More than all the myths.
November 7, 2011
Wallis has written a unique and perhaps more accurate account of David (not Davy) Crockett's life. Not being very well-read in the general Biography genre, I don't feel terribly qualified to judge it among other biographies, but as a straightforward account of the life of a man generally mythologized as larger-than-life, it was very entertaining. Wallis pulls no punches describing Crockett's talents, charms, flaws, and vices, backed up by multiple original, first-hand accounts. There's no doubt that Crockett's charm and affable nature made him the perfect character to symbolize the wild frontier of the American West of the early 19th Century, which at that time only extended to the Mississippi River. The book begins by describing Crockett's ancestral roots in Scotland and Ireland, tracing his grandfather to Pennsylvania and eventually to Western North Carolina in what would eventually become Tennessee in and among the American Revolution. He then describes Crockett's difficult childhood, marked by a debt-riddled, insecure father and solitary adventures worthy of a Mark Twain novel, and eventually his homesteading and military career as a young adult.
Where the book really takes off, however, is in the second half where Wallis writes about Crockett's how political machinations and his abdication of familial responsibilities, noth financial and emotional, belied his reputation as a noble sage of the frontier. Although he made mostly genuine efforts to work for his constituants, Wallis pulls no punches in describing how his ego and personal feelings often affected his judgement.
Moreover, I loved reading about the political climate of the 1820s and 1830s. The political rivalries between the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs parallelled many of the rivalries of today between Republicans and Democrats, with much of the same contemptuous rhetoric and underhanded tactics. As Crockett eventually left Congress and moved west to Texas, Wallis also places Texas's struggle for independence from Mexico in new context. (As a Texan who had no choice but to learn about the mythological beginnings of Texas early and often in school, I found this particularly fascinating.) Crockett is portrayed less as a revolutionary hero, and more as a land speculator, hoping to make his often elusive fortune. He seems to have fallen into the revolution as he was building the foundation for what he undoubtedly hoped would be a revived political career in Texas. The fight for independence, amidst the struggle over slavery and the transplanted battles between Jacksonians and Whigs, provides a less than flattering impression of the early Texan Anglos, rather than the noble, peaceful settlers as they are typically portrayed. As the book draws to a close, Wallis describes many of those immortalized through death at the Alamo as brave but very flawed men, such as Bowie's alcohol-aided depression and Travis's illegal immigration to Texas after abandoning a wife and son.
Coming into this book, I expected to be told that the Crockett theme song created by Walt Disney was not truly accurate. I understand that the historical figures we revere only grow more outlandishly heroic with time. What I didn't expect, however, was for that demythologizing to force me to rethink myunderstanding of the zeitgeist of early 19th Century pioneering America. The Manifest Destiny that we even still often hold as noble and justified caused great harm to millions, harm that is still felt today. Given the context of the time, it's easy to forgive them, especially after seeing that world through the eyes of arguably its most famous figure. But we would be missing an essential lesson if we did not acknowledge the moral and relational mistakes. Crockett serves as the quintessential figure in that regard. At his heart, he was a good man, but his flaws were strong. He helped shape uniquely American image of the West, and that image served as the inspiration for much of American culture today. Whether that's good or bad, it's a legacy that cannot be denied.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2012
Reading Michael Wallis's excellent biography on David (he didn't answer to Davy) Crockett was a pleasure, but it was also a real education about a time and place in American history that was never so vividly characterized before. This man's life spanned an era often over-shadowed by those immediately prior and post. The westward expansion during and after the revolutionary war was a time of hope, confusion, and hardship for those on the land and those spreading into it. Having recently read an excellent biography of Andrew Jackson, it was refreshing to study the life of a man from a similar region, but completely different circumstances. From his time as a private in Jackson's army through his time as a congressional opponent of the same Andrew Jackson as President, David Crockett was his own man. He fought when he had to but preferred to hunt, married when he had to but preferred to be on his own or with close male friends, farmed when he had to but preferred to spin yarns to anyone willing to listen. He was smarter than many credited him with being, wise in living off the land, but totally incapable of paying his debts. He went to Texas to scout out new land and was too responsible to avoid getting himself killed defending the cause of men he barely knew and who cared very little about him. He was clearly a hero, but he was a tragic hero in the end. He knew how to have a good time and to behave himself in high company, but he never really figured out how to be a success. His homespun take on things foreshadowed Will Rogers, but he never achieved Rogers standing among the great and small of his time. But, he probably didn't give a damn, as long as he could go bear hunting. I like this guy.
July 11, 2011
A very interesting and well researched book on the life of David (Davy) Crockett. It explains away much of the myth about this man that not only crept into the American culture in the 1950s at the height of the Walt Disney Davy Crockett craze, but which also existed even during his own lifetime. David Crockett was a legend in his own time, but he did not go around with a coonskin cap or did he live the life of the popular Disney song. Fortunately he did take it upon himself to write his own autobiography and other books about himself that have been substantiated by other writings and records of his day. It was interesting to note that much of his life was driven by his need to earn or acquire money to pay his never-ending debts to his friends and lenders... he was a poor manager of his own money, but yet lived by the rule that he would always pay off a debt no matter how small.
Few realize that David Crockett became a politician in his later life and severed several terms in Congress as well as being urged to run for President by the Whigs against Andrew Jackson. In fact it was primarily politics that was behind his decision to move to Texas, which at the time belonged to Mexico. David Crockett did not like the politics of Andrew Jackson although he had once admired the man as a soldier and leader, and it was that he did not want to remain in the United States any longer under his presidency or of his successor, Martin Van Buren. For the most part, it was only by the circumstance of timing that he happened to be in San Antonio, Texas, during the the seige of the Alamo where he was killed in 1836.
Few realize that David Crockett became a politician in his later life and severed several terms in Congress as well as being urged to run for President by the Whigs against Andrew Jackson. In fact it was primarily politics that was behind his decision to move to Texas, which at the time belonged to Mexico. David Crockett did not like the politics of Andrew Jackson although he had once admired the man as a soldier and leader, and it was that he did not want to remain in the United States any longer under his presidency or of his successor, Martin Van Buren. For the most part, it was only by the circumstance of timing that he happened to be in San Antonio, Texas, during the the seige of the Alamo where he was killed in 1836.
December 24, 2013
Wallis does a good job turning the tall tales "Davy Crockett" into the actual man, David Crockett - that's his central thesis, in fact - that the man was different from the stories - and that Crockett himself fostered and built the persona of "Davy Crockett."
In fact, Crockett reminded me of a tea-party politician, or a 90's "Reform Party" guy. One can easily find parallels between Crockett and Ross Perot, or Jesse Ventura, or Sarah Palin or Paul Ryan. Crockett's home-spun common sense, his eschewing of the Washington elite, was in great part a political strategy to run for office, and as congressman, he may have even harbored hopes of being the Whig presidential candidate at some point.
Still, he was the real deal for lovers of American larger-than-life figures. He really did hunt a lot of bears, and ended up in close-quarter combat with more than one. He waded rivers in freezing temperatures, and he lived off the land for many periods of his life. His favorite places to live were always the places just beyond the bounds of where Americans had settled thus far. And his death at the Alamo was romantic, whether he died after slaying some final attackers with the butt of his rifle, or was taken prisoner and summarily executed.
This book also makes me want to seek out his autobiography - his writing style was an influence on Mark Twain (!) and he helped define the American soul.
In fact, Crockett reminded me of a tea-party politician, or a 90's "Reform Party" guy. One can easily find parallels between Crockett and Ross Perot, or Jesse Ventura, or Sarah Palin or Paul Ryan. Crockett's home-spun common sense, his eschewing of the Washington elite, was in great part a political strategy to run for office, and as congressman, he may have even harbored hopes of being the Whig presidential candidate at some point.
Still, he was the real deal for lovers of American larger-than-life figures. He really did hunt a lot of bears, and ended up in close-quarter combat with more than one. He waded rivers in freezing temperatures, and he lived off the land for many periods of his life. His favorite places to live were always the places just beyond the bounds of where Americans had settled thus far. And his death at the Alamo was romantic, whether he died after slaying some final attackers with the butt of his rifle, or was taken prisoner and summarily executed.
This book also makes me want to seek out his autobiography - his writing style was an influence on Mark Twain (!) and he helped define the American soul.
November 22, 2014
Before this book, knew very little about David beyond the TV song and the Alamo. Mr. Wallis does a nice job of filling in the history that enveloped David, as well as some of his exploits and antics. I had not heard of Fort Mims though I did know that tribes and farmers fought. Also did not know of David's political life. Not meant to provide copious detail about the 1812 war, Indian wars, and conflicts with Mexico, this book provides enough to be familiar with the events, as well as Halley's Comet.
Somewhere on my biological mother's side of the family there is talk of native American family. Unfortunately, finding the information isn't easy. It is possible my blond blue eyed children tan easier than burn, despite a heavily Irish and German background, because of native genetic heritage. About the only thing I know is that the tribe was southern -likely Missouri area.
Reading about Crockett, Jackson, Red Sticks, and more during the early to mid 1800s leaves me wondering where my American roots were and how they lived. Were they among the farm owners that owned slaves, were they slaves, did they adapt to European influence right away, or were they stuck on Reservations during the 1800s? (my Irish and German contributors were living in Ireland and Austria)
Somewhere on my biological mother's side of the family there is talk of native American family. Unfortunately, finding the information isn't easy. It is possible my blond blue eyed children tan easier than burn, despite a heavily Irish and German background, because of native genetic heritage. About the only thing I know is that the tribe was southern -likely Missouri area.
Reading about Crockett, Jackson, Red Sticks, and more during the early to mid 1800s leaves me wondering where my American roots were and how they lived. Were they among the farm owners that owned slaves, were they slaves, did they adapt to European influence right away, or were they stuck on Reservations during the 1800s? (my Irish and German contributors were living in Ireland and Austria)
August 18, 2022
An excellent, no holds barred biography of one of America’s greatest historical legends, this books sets straight all the misconceptions that both Hollywood and especially Walt Disney placed before the public. This is not really a criticism of Disney, just an observation. After all, it specifically was Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett that turned me on to history while I was in the 1st Grade and that eventually turned into a 29 year teaching career, but boy did it bear little resemblance to the truth. This book was, therefore, a fascinating examination of his life from his childhood through his death. I learned so much about this character I never imagined.
From running away from home to avoid a whipping from his father (and not returning for a couple of years), to his favorite pastime of bear hunting, Crockett’s adventures were harrowing and, at time death defying. In fact, between near drownings, near freezings, serious bouts with malaria and doses of a medication considered at the time to be of lethal strength, and wars with Andrew Jackson against the Red Sticks (Upper Creeks), it almost seems amazing to me that he lived long enough to get killed at the Alamo.
If you have any interest in knowing the real David Crockett, read this book.
From running away from home to avoid a whipping from his father (and not returning for a couple of years), to his favorite pastime of bear hunting, Crockett’s adventures were harrowing and, at time death defying. In fact, between near drownings, near freezings, serious bouts with malaria and doses of a medication considered at the time to be of lethal strength, and wars with Andrew Jackson against the Red Sticks (Upper Creeks), it almost seems amazing to me that he lived long enough to get killed at the Alamo.
If you have any interest in knowing the real David Crockett, read this book.
May 12, 2012
Wallis claimed to write this as an exposure of the real Davy Crockett, bursting through the folklore to discover the fallible human. A lot of biographers make such claims because they need new approaches to historical subjects to market to publishers. I liked this biography, but not because of any assault on Crockett's legacy. It turns out that Davy Crockett was larger than life. No, he didn't kill a bear when he was three, and no he didn't live under a coonskin cap, nobody really knows for sure how he died at the Alamo, and he had human fallibilities. That doesn't matter, though, because people know the difference between the Disney hero and any real person. Davy Crockett was a real person, and led a life that fit his time but was exciting enough to make him famous within it and beyond. Wallis covered Crockett's entire life in a nice little book that is a quick read. It's not particularly insightful, and borrows heavily from other Crockett biographies, including his autobiography. If you have an interest in Crockett or the early 19th century American frontier, Wallis's work is a worthwhile breeze.
February 23, 2015
I learned much about Crockett the politician and how he became anti-Jacksonian. Even his decision to go to the Alamo, rather than joining Houston, was based on his Whig politics. This book openly discusses his mythic self, a version begun in his lifetime, and an honest picture of the man and his flaws and courage. I found myself wishing his political career had become a part of the myth, along with the hunter and the martyr. As a child, I often saw Elizabeth Crockett's grave in Acton, Texas with its tall statue of her looking south to the Alamo. I had always assumed that was where she was in 1836. But she and David had been long estranged, and she came to Texas years later. David struggled with debt his entire life which made him dedicated to making land available to those who would work for it and improve it. His son, John Wesley Crockett, elected to the Congressional seat his father had held finally got his father's Tennessee land bill passed. I wondered how much the Homestead Act owed to the Crocketts. This well researched but very accessible book provides new insight into American culture and its myths.
August 26, 2013
Does a nice job of scraping away the 'Legend of Davy Crockett' and showing there was a pretty interesting guy underneath anyway.
Yeah, he was deeply flawed and his own worst enemy in many ways, but still a fascinating look at the man and the times he lived in. Crockett was there through a lot of the post-founding fathers time when the USA was expanding and finding its way.
Brutal reminder that this country was pretty much built on a foundation of blood and there isn't a bit of our history that doesn't involve somebody getting killed.
That and Texas was pretty much founded and run by criminals and illegal aliens.
so not much has changed there.
Bit disappointed in the final chapter, as I was hoping to learn more about the Alamo, and Wallis pretty much skimmed through that. Wether due to him not having gotten any more information then anyone else or because he figured it was the part of Crockett's history everyone was familiar with.
Bit disappointing after all the build up to have the ending be so brief and underwelming.
Yeah, he was deeply flawed and his own worst enemy in many ways, but still a fascinating look at the man and the times he lived in. Crockett was there through a lot of the post-founding fathers time when the USA was expanding and finding its way.
Brutal reminder that this country was pretty much built on a foundation of blood and there isn't a bit of our history that doesn't involve somebody getting killed.
That and Texas was pretty much founded and run by criminals and illegal aliens.
so not much has changed there.
Bit disappointed in the final chapter, as I was hoping to learn more about the Alamo, and Wallis pretty much skimmed through that. Wether due to him not having gotten any more information then anyone else or because he figured it was the part of Crockett's history everyone was familiar with.
Bit disappointing after all the build up to have the ending be so brief and underwelming.
September 15, 2011
This biography was just okay. The problem was that Crockett's life was not all that interesting. Yes he was a famous person in his day, but mainly because as a U.S. Representative he was known for his hunting ability, folksy stories, and his backwoods demeanor, and was the subject of books and plays. In reality his life was filled with moving from farm to farm to find some financial security, trying to stay ahead of his creditors, and long stretches away from his family because he was happiest when hunting in the forests. He was a soldier and adventurer and unluckily found himself at the Alamo while searching for a new home in Texas. It was interesting to read the real story, because most of my generation only know of Davey Crockett from the iconic Disney series.
July 5, 2011
I decided to read this book after finding out that David Crockett was in my fathers ancestry line. My husband said that he had this book-so I read it. It is not an easy flowing book to read but it is full of facts, and dates and resources. I grew up watching the television Disney show about Davy Crockett, not even my father knew that we were possibly related. But in looking up family members on ancestry. com I discovered that on my father's side of the family that David Crockett was a distant relative, 8 generations back-an uncle!
March 15, 2012
History the way it should be written (other than saying the American Revolution ended with the Battle of Saratoga) ... clear, concise, and one-hundred percent interesting ... Good stuff that dispels myths and makes the real human being even more interesting than the myths ...
December 15, 2013
We think we know the man, but really we know the man that Fess Parker portrayed. Here is the real Col David Crockett, warts and all. The reality behind the American Myth. This is not a hatchet job, but rather a balanced story of a man’s life, albeit, a man known as the “Lion of the West.”
May 31, 2016
Crockett is the biography of poorly educated frontiersman who built a reputation as a story teller and hunter that carried him into Congress and ultimately to Texas during its revolution. There is a very short section on his Texas sojourn.
January 6, 2020
I enjoyed listening to this book on Audible. Crockett has an incredible story. He wasn’t perfect or super-human, he was a man who impacted many (and still does). I appreciate the focus on the truth in the telling of Crockett’s life.
January 2, 2020
The Story of the Real David Crockett
A fascinating look at the man behind the myth, his incredible life, and his famous demise. A must read for fans of U.S. history.
A fascinating look at the man behind the myth, his incredible life, and his famous demise. A must read for fans of U.S. history.
December 18, 2018
Having watched the 1950's Disney Davy Crockett movie over and over, along with the John Wayne portrayal in 1960 movie The Alamo, I knew that my view of this larger than life historical figure was skewed through viewing him through rose colored glasses. I was not sure what to expect with this biography, but was pleasantly surprised by the depth of character Michael Wallis brought out in his subject.
David Crockett, (he never signed his name as Davy) was a complex person who had his strengths and faults like the rest of us. Raised by a father who was often in debt and had to move on to escape the collectors, Crockett found himself doing much the same as an adult. Though he was a fabled marksman and often claimed if his prowess in killing bears, he did not start at the age of 3. He did fight in the Creek Wars under Andrew Jackson, he was more of a scout and food hunter than a hunter of Native Americans. He did go home to take care of his family, but he had 2 sons and a daughter at the time. Though his wife Polly did die, the kids did not go to live with his brother and sister-in-law. Actually, he shortly remarried to a local widow as he recognized that the kids needed a mother. He was not as successful in business or politics as movies, especially Disney, led people to believe, and it was the people of Tennessee that voted him out of office for his opposition to President Andrew Jackson's policies. He headed out to Texas to try to get land and get back into politics, and ended up at the Alamo. And he arrived before the settlers took refuge in the Alamo. Then there is the question of how he died there. Did he die heroically? Did he surrender and was executed by Santa Anna? Or did he escape wearing a woman's dress?
All in all this was a well written book about the life of Davy Crockett. It does punch holes into the myth that surrounds him, but makes him a more well rounded character. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in early American history, as well as those who are interested in Davy Crockett.
David Crockett, (he never signed his name as Davy) was a complex person who had his strengths and faults like the rest of us. Raised by a father who was often in debt and had to move on to escape the collectors, Crockett found himself doing much the same as an adult. Though he was a fabled marksman and often claimed if his prowess in killing bears, he did not start at the age of 3. He did fight in the Creek Wars under Andrew Jackson, he was more of a scout and food hunter than a hunter of Native Americans. He did go home to take care of his family, but he had 2 sons and a daughter at the time. Though his wife Polly did die, the kids did not go to live with his brother and sister-in-law. Actually, he shortly remarried to a local widow as he recognized that the kids needed a mother. He was not as successful in business or politics as movies, especially Disney, led people to believe, and it was the people of Tennessee that voted him out of office for his opposition to President Andrew Jackson's policies. He headed out to Texas to try to get land and get back into politics, and ended up at the Alamo. And he arrived before the settlers took refuge in the Alamo. Then there is the question of how he died there. Did he die heroically? Did he surrender and was executed by Santa Anna? Or did he escape wearing a woman's dress?
All in all this was a well written book about the life of Davy Crockett. It does punch holes into the myth that surrounds him, but makes him a more well rounded character. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in early American history, as well as those who are interested in Davy Crockett.
April 8, 2018
In "David Crockett: The Lion of the West," the author quotes Richard Slotkin, who once wrote, "men like Davy Crockett became national heroes by defining national aspiration in terms of so many bears destroyed, so much land preempted, so many trees hacked down, so many Indians and Mexicans dead in the dust."
Michael Wallis, the author of this book adds, "Yet at the same time, Crockett also symbolized the poor and downtrodden whom he had always stood up for throughout his life."
This tension is central to "David Crockett: Lion of the West." Davy Crockett killed a number of Creek Indians. Davy Crockett killed hundreds of black bears. Davy Crockett all but abandoned his wife and children. He was debtor and an alcoholic.
At the same time, Crockett was the lone Tennessee politician to stand against the Indian Removal Act. He served three terms in Congress, standing up to the power of real estate interests, crony capitalists, and the burgeoning American aristocracy. He is the symbol of the lost beauty of the American frontier.
Crockett blazed the frontier trail, and then found himself stampeded by those who came after him. It's poetic that he died in Texas, where there were no more mountains, no more forests, and no more trails left to blaze. Crockett embodies a peculiar early American contradiction, in which one can be both the settler and the settled. In Michael Wallis's brisk biography of Crockett, you are left with a keen sense of these contradictions. You also understand the the aspects of the man, good and bad, that combined to make him a legend. If there is a flaw to the book, it is that you wish you left it understanding Crockett a little better. But, Wallis gives you the sense that this issue is not with the author but with the subject.
Michael Wallis, the author of this book adds, "Yet at the same time, Crockett also symbolized the poor and downtrodden whom he had always stood up for throughout his life."
This tension is central to "David Crockett: Lion of the West." Davy Crockett killed a number of Creek Indians. Davy Crockett killed hundreds of black bears. Davy Crockett all but abandoned his wife and children. He was debtor and an alcoholic.
At the same time, Crockett was the lone Tennessee politician to stand against the Indian Removal Act. He served three terms in Congress, standing up to the power of real estate interests, crony capitalists, and the burgeoning American aristocracy. He is the symbol of the lost beauty of the American frontier.
Crockett blazed the frontier trail, and then found himself stampeded by those who came after him. It's poetic that he died in Texas, where there were no more mountains, no more forests, and no more trails left to blaze. Crockett embodies a peculiar early American contradiction, in which one can be both the settler and the settled. In Michael Wallis's brisk biography of Crockett, you are left with a keen sense of these contradictions. You also understand the the aspects of the man, good and bad, that combined to make him a legend. If there is a flaw to the book, it is that you wish you left it understanding Crockett a little better. But, Wallis gives you the sense that this issue is not with the author but with the subject.
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