Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

History

Sub-Department

College of Arts and Sciences

First Advisor

Mark M. Smith

Abstract

This thesis takes a sensory-historical approach to the 1836 Siege and Battle of the Alamo, its inscription into history and its propagation as a touchstone of Texas’ memory and identity. My focus is on the auditory, an especially important sensory experience to consider. Among the many auditory tactics deployed during the siege, the storming itself took place in the pre-dawn darkness, and many of the survivors’ accounts were from women and children among the garrison, who were sequestered away from the visual experience of the battle. Flooding from the accounts of survivors into the popular imagination of Texans, the sounds of battle became powerful auditory motifs meant to provoke emotions including pride, anger, and nostalgia, as well as inscribing a sense of Texas’ national identity

Rights

© 2018, Michelle E. Herbelin

Included in

History Commons

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