PanLos Angeles Review of BooksBy withholding the only details that explain this unlikely Anglo victory, [Haynes] only makes the Mexican soldiers seem incompetent or, worse, cowardly ... Even more troubling is Haynes’s apologist depiction of Santa Anna ... The problems with Haynes’s account grow out of a noble and necessary desire: to counter the \"traditional narrative of the revolution\" ... But surely this can be done without attempting to rehabilitate the reputation of a mass-murdering dictator like Santa Anna or omitting the details that are necessary to understanding foundational moments in the story of Texas.