Customer Reviews

The Eagle and the Raven

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Michener spent the first 32 pages of the book explaining how it was that a writer in his 80's could produce so much in such a short period of time. It was almost an excuse. This book was originally intended to be a part of his massive Texas, but was dropped before the final editing. This book gives a very brief outline of the biographies of Santa Anna, the Eagle, and Sam Houston, the Raven. Though really just a thumbnail sketch of each man, Michener is not afraid to tell it like it really was, instead of the homogonized versions one usually finds in biographies. The subjects, Santa Anna & Houston, are fascinating, and Michener's sampling makes one long for a more detailed accounting of each man's life. Perhaps this was Michener's intent. The book is short, and somewhat choppy, jumping from man to man chronologically. As a book, it was very interesting, and a quick read. As an example of Michener's work......... look elsewhere.

The Prologue tells about his past writings, and why he kept writing into his 80s: his job is to tell stories. This book was intended to be a chapter in his novel 'Texas', but was dropped because it was history and not part of the novel. Michener's reject can stand alone as a concise history of these men. Pages 29-30 notes his solid rules of work at 80: rise at 7:30, eat a frugal breakfast, write until 12:30. Eat a light lunch, take a nap, do research and teaching, then a brisk mile walk at dusk. Supper, the evening news, maybe TV, and the day ends. Michener lived to a ripe old age, after a quintuple heart by-pass, new left hip, dental rebuilding, and vertigo. Like an old apple tree, he kept on growing and producing. These pages are worth reading in themselves.

The book gives a concise history into the parallel lives of Santa Anna and Sam Houston. Both were destined to be famous politicians in their countries, but never did overcome their flaws. But how many of out politicians do when the historians release the uncensored facts?

Santa Anna won renown by his military action against the many rebellions. They were put down by executing most of the captured rebels, or making them imprisoned slaves. Santa Anna's talents lay in knowing just when to change sides. One morning Santa Anna led his troops against the rebels and was promoted to Lt Colonel. After lunch, he joined the rebels and was promoted to full Colonel! Santa Anna later supported Emperor Iturbide and became a General. All this suggests the Founding Fathers were right to require a small standing Army, and keep the professional military out of politics. This book does not explain who Santa Anna was fronting for; you'll need to read a more detailed history book. Page 112 tells of Santa Anna's use of double agents: military officers who pretended to defect to the Zacatecans, then betrayed the Zacatecan forces who also rebelled against the coup de etat.

The Mexican defeat at San Jacinto led to the capture of Santa Anna. Houston showed his political wisdom by getting Santa Anna to sign a treaty to be released. A live Santa Anna would try to justify his actions, and prevent another general from becoming ruler, and maybe starting another war against the smaller Texas. Houston became President of Texas, US Senator, then Governor. Houston opposed the Confederacy, and was removed from office. What would have happened if Houston used Union troops to stay in office? Could it have succeeded? At 68 Houston must have felt he had done as much as he could do in one lifetime. Houston retired to his farm and died in 1863 at 70 years.

Santa Anna was recalled from exile to lead Mexico into the war with America. Their defeat led to the loss of huge areas. Santa Anna was the most expensive President Mexico ever had! (I wonder if Santa Anna was a member of a Secret Society and a double agent? That would explain a lot.) Ever the opportunist, he backed the conservatives who invited Maximilian to be Emperor of Mexico. When the reign of Maximilian was on the wane, Santa Anna switched sides yet again. His one gift to America was to introduce chewing gum, a substitute for the ubiquitous chewing tobacco. Santa Anna returned to Mexico City a few years before his death to live in poverty and obscurity.

Much of Michener's work is novel, with accurate historical background information. This book is not. It is history, and written in an exciting and interesting way. I recommend this book to anyone, whatever their interest. Easy, fun, book.

One of the best semi-biographical books I have recently read. Compares and at times contrasts, the lives of Antonio López de Santa Anna and Sam Houston, heros from both sides of the border.

I just finished reading this short and sweet segment of Texas history for the third time. The first time I read this, I was a student in honors Texas history. Now, I can appreciate this work from the perspective of a teacher.

I'm a little surprised at the bad reviews. This book was obviously not meant to be comprehensive treatment of either man, or of those fateful years for Texas. This is a supplementary work, meant to be appreciated in tandem with other sources.

Above and beyond this however, The Eagle and the Raven is a study of two men whose similarities almost overpower their differences. Michener astutely lines up the characteristics and events side by side so the reader can find the overarching pattern. The book is striking when seen for what it was meant to be--a character study of two of the most fascinating men in the 1800s.

This short treatise is handled expertly--I even found the prologue worthwhile and interesting, although it didn't fit exactly with the subject matter. However, Michener's patient weaving of the tale leaves the reader with something weighty to remember. Despite all of the bizarre similarities between Sam Houston and Santa Ana, the one pivotal difference creates a stunning divide and left consequences throughout history that we continue to feel today.

This is a highly, HIGHLY recommended work. Don't expect it to be a dissertation on Texas--Michener already did that. Take it as it is, meet Michener where he is at, and learn. He is a worthy teacher.

Highly Recommended.

This is an odd effort in many ways. Coming in at just 211 pages of text (plus about 20 pages of appendices), this is a tiny Michener book. It is even more tiny when you consider that 28 pages of this book is a forward by Michener and about 20 pages of the book are taken up with blank pages between chapters and illustrations.

This Michener paperback was published in 1991 by Tor, a publishing house more well-known for its sci-fi and fantasy offerings. I would imagine that they just wanted to cash in on the Michener name since he was in the midst of a real hit streak with such books as "Alaska", "Caribbean" and "Poland" becoming best-sellers.

Tor calls this book a novel, although only a few pages really qualify as a novel, with inserted character dialogue that was most likely created by Michener. The rest of it is really best described as a comparative biography. While not the best of historical works, "The Eagle and the Raven" provides a comparison between Sam Houston of Tennessee and Texas and Santa Anna of Mexico. This is not a detailed biography by any means. I found myself wishing that he had went into a lot more detail, especially with the Mexican political situation.

Michener's forward to the book describes how and why he seemed to re-double his efforts as an author as he reached his eighties. In many ways, this is the most interesting portion of the book, especially if you are a Michener fan. In this forward the reader discovers that this book was actually a discarded chapter from his earlier book, "Texas." He did something similar with a discarded chapter from Alaska.

It would be fair to say that Michener did not give this chapter the same editorial treatment that he gave "Texas." Two factual errors jumped out at me as I read it - usually Michener and his editors catch them. Michener incorrectly attributes the eagle motiff on the Mexican flag to a Mayan legend (actually it was Aztec) and he claims Mexico was the first country in the New World to abolish slavery (it was Haiti). A little more editing would have eliminated the tiny amount of fiction that Michener inserted into the text (about 5 pages of conversation in a section at the end of the book) and Michener could have published this one as a dual biography rather than as a novel.

I give this one a grade of C+

I've never been a big Michener fan, but in this tome, he does an adequate job of comparing the lives and personalities of Santa Anna and Sam Houston. Riding on the hype of the Texas Sesquicentennial, Michener takes the reader on an informal tour of early Mexico and Texas. He touches on events in the U.S. as well as in Europe where they apply to the story. What I really enjoyed most were the excellent drawings by noted artist Charles Shaw. He is among the best!

This 1990 book is basically a portion of TEXAS which had been edited out. It is a short and not particularly well written comparison of Santa Ana and Sam Houston. These biographies are presented in chronological order which necessitates jumping from one man to the other in alternating chapters for most of the work. Although Michener has apparently done his usual through research and made some insightful observations the subject just isn't very interesting to any but a serious scholar, and a serious scholar would be frustrated by its superficiality. It would have been much better to trim this down to a long magazine article.

The first 30 pages of the book are a long rambling foreward by Michener detailing his life leading up to the publication of this work. Michener gives us far too much detail about his relationships with his publishers and editors at this time, drops quite a few names - some of interest but most not particularly - brags about his accomplishments, and goes into mindnumbing detail about his writing schedule. The last seventeen pages contain transcripts and facsimiles of letters, a chronology and a suggested reading list. This leaves about 183 pages of actual text but there are several pages of illustrations, (which look as though they taken from an abridged children's novel) that have a blank page separating each from the next printed page which take up 40 additional pages leaving the actual work a mere 143 pages of actual text, actually less since the printing has be done to stretch this out as much as possible - each chapter begins half way down the page for example. The whole thing is reminiscent of a student attempting to stretch out meager work to a required length.

Take a pass on this one, it is not the typical riveting Michener work of fiction fans have come to expect and as a work of serious scholarship would merit a C at best.

Not your typical 1000 page historical drama, a very nice read bt choppy at times switching from character to character.

Overall, this book was disappointing. But the lengthy introduction written by the author made the book worth reading. Michener is a great author, with dozens of historical novels under his belt. The introduction tells a bit of the process behind getting a novel to print. Not only that, but he shows how the novels started as ideas and eventually got to the printed page. For those who enjoy reading Michener, this is not only a great introduction to this particular novel, but it is also a great chance to understand more about the author and how he goes about his profession.

There are a number of illustrations scattered throughout the book. Illustrations are usually good, who doesn't like pictures? But the illustrations here in The Eagle and The Raven are surprisingly dull and.... bad. In regard to the book itself, the contrasts and comparisons between the lives and personalities of Sam Houston and Santa Anna were interesting, but probably not enough for an entire book. Originally, this book was only a chapter in Michener's other novel, Texas. This fact is made clear after reading the short novel. Any history loving Michener fan will enjoy this short book, but it doesn't measure up to some of Michener's other novels.