{"product_id":"the-bald-eagle","title":"The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America's Bird","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 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 \u003cem\u003eHaliaeetus leucocephalus\u003c\/em\u003e to the brink of extinction.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFilled 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--\u003cem\u003eThe Bald Eagle\u003c\/em\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJack E. Davis\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the author of the award-winning \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Gulf: The Making of An American Sea\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAn Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. A professor of environmental history at the University of Florida, he lives in Florida and New Hampshire.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"Davis, the Pulitzer-winning author of \u003cem\u003eThe Gulf\u003c\/em\u003e, 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.... Along with the famous humans, Davis never neglects the birds themselves.... Davis shines at most everything in this exuberantly expansive book, but especially at highlighting individual birds like the translocated ones making their way in the world. With eagle numbers now estimated at levels they were before 'America became America, ' their comeback is astonishing.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--Vicki Constantine Crokem, New York Times Book Review\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An impressive work of scholarship . . . . if you have any questions about our national bird, Mr. Davis's \u003cem\u003eThe Bald Eagle\u003c\/em\u003e is a great place to look for answers.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--Bill Heavey, Wall Street Journal\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Jack E. Davis wants it very clearly understood that a bald eagle cannot, in fact, pluck an infant girl from her carriage, carry her clenched between its talons to its nest, and feed her to its eaglets. Okay?.... Why did Americans nearly drive America's bird to extinction? In \u003cem\u003eThe Bald Eagle\u003c\/em\u003e, Davis, who won a Pulitzer Prize for \u003cem\u003eThe Gulf, \u003c\/em\u003ea clever history of 'America's Sea, ' has written a double biography: a history of the species and a history of the symbol.... \u003cem\u003eThe Bald Eagle\u003c\/em\u003e is the rare natural history that plays as a comedy. It's a dark comedy, however, because its lessons are not easily transferable to our broader, ongoing ecological catastrophe. The bald eagle is not only a symbol of American might. It is a symbol of American exceptionalism.... A moving portrait of a species victimized for its own evolutionary successes.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\"A feel-good story.... [A] engaging and highly detailed cultural and natural history of the unofficial national bird (Davis points out that no president or Congress has ever signed a proclamation or law making it official).... 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.\"\u003cstrong\u003e--Matt Jaffe, San Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54558064410934,"sku":"9781324094104","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0745\/2301\/7526\/files\/71prrAhMrML._SL1200.jpg?v=1789423825","url":"https:\/\/www.summerbeambooks.com\/products\/the-bald-eagle","provider":"Summer Beam Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}