The Bald Eagle

I honestly don’t think that a book can possibly be any more thorough and comprehensive on the cultural and natural history of the bald eagle than Jack E. Davis’s latest work, "The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey."

In the very unlikely event that someone does pull off such a feat, then I still strongly doubt anyone can match the spectacular accessibility of the author’s writing. It’s a challenge enough as it is to research an extensive history on any topic. But no less difficult is presenting such histories in a way that doesn’t result in a dry information dump that either easily exhausts a reader, swamps them, or both. The balancing act is a tricky one, but Davis most definitely pulls it off in spades here. His sweeping history includes, but is not limited to, the roles of eagles in the culture and rituals of various indigenous American tribes, the long era era that the birds spent as a paradox as both treasured national symbol and loathed predatory pest, the two different times they were pushed to the brink of extinction and the measures taken to bring them back. Yet the wealth of knowledge delivered through the book’s over four hundred pages never felt overwhelming. If anything, I felt like I was able to absorb it almost effortlessly. His writing flows with both clarity and an enthusiasm for his subject material that proves wonderfully infectious. However, this passion never veers anywhere close to fawning, which given just how over the top the bald eagle’s totemic treatment can get in the US, is a relief. He grants respect to where it’s due, and withholds it from where it’s not, and has a total lack of patience for misconceptions or myths that I much appreciated. For example, a line that stood out to me early on:

“The Founders - who disallowed women’s rights, regarded Indians as uncivilized, and held Africans and African Americans in bondage - failed to live up to their own philosophy, falsifying the freedoms embodied in their iconic bird to the benefit of white privilege.”

I can now see how he’s earned himself a Pulitzer, amongst other awards, for his prior major work “The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea” (a work that has now been added to my to-read itinerary).

With a newfound fascination for a very particular bird sparking off within, I am happy to declare this not just a fantastic work of nonfiction, but one of my favorite reads of the year.