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Reviewed by:
  • Sam Houston
  • Jesús F. de la Teja
Sam Houston. By James L. Haley. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Pp. 513. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $39.95 cloth.

Sam Houston is the most examined man in Texas history, with the exception of Lyndon Baines Johnson. All told, over sixty works on the man have appeared, including five important biographies in the 1990s and 2000s alone. Ironically, his contemporary Stephen F. Austin, who was the first Anglo American land promoter to work in Texas, thus earning the epitaph "Father of Texas," has had only two major biographies (Eugene Barker's The Life of Stephen F. Austin: Founder of Texas, 1793-1836 [1926] and Gregg Cantrell's Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas [1999]). Some of the disparity comes naturally from the fact that Austin died in December 1836 while Houston lived another twenty-seven years, during which time he served twice as president of the Republic of Texas, Texas senator to the U.S. Congress, and governor of the state on the eve of the Civil War. One also has, however, a sneaking suspicion that much of the disparity comes from the fact that Austin's story falls completely within the context of Mexican Texas, while Houston's falls largely outside of it.

Houston's was a controversial career, both public and private. Staunchly Unionist, he fought against Southern secessionism to the very end, when he was forcibly removed from the governorship for refusing to call a secession convention. Friendly to the Cherokees from his youth in Tennessee, he advocated a peace and co-existence policy that put him out-of-step with his fellow Indian-fighting Texans. Controversy also followed him in private life. He mysteriously returned his first wife to her parents, resigned as governor of Tennessee, and spent the next two years in Indian territory among the Cherokees, drinking himself into the nickname "Big Drunk," but [End Page 743] also becoming increasingly involved in western affairs. A happier second marriage not only produced progeny but also made him a much more acceptable public figure.

Haley handles the mix of the public and the personal with aplomb and insightfulness. He rarely strays far from his subject, and is careful to note where he disagrees or departs from earlier biographers. Unfortunately for scholars of Mexican history, the part of the book that addresses Mexico is bound to disappoint. Discussion of conditions and circumstances inside Mexico that contributed to the Texas rebellion and to the subsequent course of events leading to war with the United States are covered only briefly and at times inaccurately. Furthermore, Haley misses an opportunity to elaborate on the ideological underpinnings of a man who crossed into Mexican Texas in December 1832, only to serve as a member of the convention of protest against Mexico rule in April 1833 and subsequently helps to draft a new state constitution. Nevertheless, Haley's effort is a worthy one. The book is a pleasure to read and will reward anyone interested in more fully understanding Texas' role in the growing political and economic crisis that produced the Civil War.

Jesús F. de la Teja
Texas State University, San Marcos
San Marcos, Texas
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