Best Books of the Month: Wall Street Journal, Kirkus Reviews From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Gulf, a sweeping cultural and natural history of the bald eagle in America. 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.

The story of A. J. Gordon recounts an epic journeyone of faith, character, and pioneering vision. A sterling educator, philanthropist, and herald of heaven, he was a great soul, and his life a resplendent legacy. This impeccably researched biography brings Dr. Gordons world to life, charting his rise to international prominence and his work with great peers and friends like D. L. Moody. Born in rural New Hampshire, he was, in many ways, a renaissance man: an educator, philanthropist, author, magazine editor, antislavery advocate, trustee of Brown University, and the pastor of Clarendon Street Church in Boston. He also led groundbreaking mission work among Bostons immigrant communities, chiefly Chinese and Hebrew groups. - They cherished his work among them. In 1889, Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training School to give underprivileged young people an education they would not have had otherwise. Tuition was free, and courses (taught by Ivy Leagueeducated instructors) were open to young men and young women of many ethnicities African-American, Chinese, and Hebrew students among them. Gordon stoutly weathered storms of criticism over this, but he persevered. His gifts as an author resonate still, and his many books are now housed in places like the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.