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The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America's Bird
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About This Book
The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you're not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as "majestic" and "noble," yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation's founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction. Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves—monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world's finest parents—The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird's wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale.
Reviews
"But if you have any questions about our national bird, Mr."
"Well-timed humor...keeps things moving, and his writing is vivid ..."
"The author's consistently lively, captivating narrative celebrates the naturalists, scientists, activists, artists...politicians, and breeders who have championed the extraordinary 'charismatic raptor' ..."
"Davis deftly brings alive the bald eagle as a real animal, separate from both the myths of its rapaciousness and the symbolic majesty that at times has made the birds emblems for organizations ranging from the National Rifle Association to the National Wildlife Foundation ..."
"Davis' unique look at a bird we all thought we were familiar with is well-researched and chock-full of fascinating historical and nature-oriented vignettes."
"Gliding on prose as majestic as his subject, Pulitzer Prize-winning environmental historian Jack E."
"Davis...makes clear in his rollicking, poetic, wise new book that cultural and political history are an integral part of this natural history, not to be omitted if we want to tell the whole story ..."
"Davis is a superb natural historian with a lyrical feel for the eagle's world—its quirks, its habits and its extraordinary survival skills."
"The Bald Eagle is a shaggy dog."
"This fascinating and readable work will appeal to fans of the majestic bald eagle and to those interested in the natural, cultural, and political history of the United States."
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