Audiobook10 hours
David Crockett: The Lion of the West
Written by Michael Wallis
Narrated by John Pruden
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
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. Bestselling 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.
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.
Author
Michael Wallis
Michael Wallis is an award-winning historian of the Old West and author of Route 66: The Mother Road and several other books, and the co-author of Mankiller: A Chief and Her People. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Sante Fe, New Mexico.
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Reviews for David Crockett
Rating: 4.051282066666667 out of 5 stars
4/5
39 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well written and well performed. Not sure if I’m glad I listened to it. Dispelled a lot of the Legend of Davy Crockett from my childhood.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A well written and researched biography of this American icon. The writer's style is straightforward and engaging. As a result, one learns that the reality is far more interesting than the myth of Davey Crockett. A true frontier spirit living in a very different time and place, and someone worth learning more about.My only minor complaint is that occasionally the author moralizes about social issues of the day that adds nothing to an understanding of the man or his times. Nonetheless, highly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"Print the legend," goes the famous line from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance." And the same could be said about David Crockett.
Like the author, I was obsessed with all things Davy Crockett as a child, due to the Disney TV portrayal of him (in the person of Fess Parker). But here's the truth about Crockett: he wasn't born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, nor did he kill himself a "bar" when he was only 3. He had no sidekick naked George. There was no adventure with Mike Fink and the river boatmen. He didn't refer to himself as "Davy." He didn't even wear a coonskin cap, for heaven's sake (except to glean popularity with the crowds)!
On the other hand, here is what he was: a profligate hunter (he killed hundreds of bears in his lifetime, and who knows how many other creatures). A pretty poor politician. While a loner, someone who loved the adulation of crowds. A poor money-manager. A slave owner. Neglectful of his wife and family.
Though not to simplify--though Crockett was active in the Creek Indian War, he was adamantly opposed to Andrew Jackson's displacement of Indians from the eastern states to west of the Mississippi, which led to the Trail of Tears. Crockett denounced this as an atrocity, and paid dearly for it because of the wrath of Jackson.
History tends to temper heroes. This book does that "Davy" Crockett.