There’s a common misconception surrounding the Battle of the Alamo (February 23 to March 6th, 1836.) Most Americans who bother to give it much thought assume that the Alamo’s defenders…

Throughout history, great civilizations have arisen and then declined and for some, their demise resulted from their own fatal errors rather than conquest at the hands of rivals. As the noted historian Arnold Toynbee pithily remarked, “Civilizations perish from suicide, not murder.”