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The Eagle and the Raven
A historical novel outlining the historical exploits of Sam Houston and Santa Ana.
230 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
5 people are currently reading
722 people want to read
About the author
James A. Michener
526 books3,615 followersJames Albert Michener is best known for his sweeping multi-generation historical fiction sagas, usually focusing on and titled after a particular geographical region. His first novel,
Tales of the South Pacific
, which inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer; founded an MFA program now, named the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin; and made substantial contributions to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, best known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a room containing Michener's own typewriter, books, and various memorabilia.
Michener's entry in Who's Who in America says he was born on Feb. 3, 1907. But he said in his 1992 memoirs that the circumstances of his birth remained cloudy and he did not know just when he was born or who his parents were.
Toward the end of his life, he created the Journey Prize, awarded annually for the year's best short story published by an emerging Canadian writer; founded an MFA program now, named the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin; and made substantial contributions to the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, best known for its permanent collection of Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings and a room containing Michener's own typewriter, books, and various memorabilia.
Michener's entry in Who's Who in America says he was born on Feb. 3, 1907. But he said in his 1992 memoirs that the circumstances of his birth remained cloudy and he did not know just when he was born or who his parents were.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
November 7, 2019
Bleh
The only redeeming value is the book is short.
The only redeeming value is the book is short.
August 17, 2014
Not a blockbuster
My recommendation ─ anytime you come across a James Michener book that’s something less than a thousand-page blockbuster, read it. He’s that good. And you might want to try one of his longer ones too, if you never have. Don’t be daunted by their size. Michener’s smooth prose will carry you along and you’ll get through it more quickly than what you might have thought.
Michener’s The Eagle and The Raven comes in at just over two hundred pages. Michener calls it narrative fiction, I call it non-fiction YA, not vampirish, grammar-stunted YA, call it historical YA, non-contemporary, historical YA, which isn’t to say it’s not suitable for adults, it is. It’ll just seem breezy.
The first thirty or so of those two-hundred plus pages are a kind of long introduction that really doesn’t have much, if anything to do with the story itself, except for a few pages telling us how the book came about. (It was a piece excised from one of Michener’s behemoths – Texas, 1120 pages.)
The rest of the introduction is Michener telling us (boasting,) about how prolifically he was writing in the nineteen-eighties, his last full decade of work. (He died in 1997 at the age of ninety.)
The book is the juxtaposition of two men who are, each in his way, the quintessential representative of his people at a turbulent time in Texas history, the period from roughly 1810 to 1870. During those years, Texas went from a colony of Spain, to a state of Mexico, to an independent country, to an American state, to a Confederate state and back to an American state again.
The Eagle is Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, otherwise and usually known as Santa Anna, or, as he fancied himself, the Napoleon of the West. The Eagle was eleven times president of Mexico, four times banished from his country, and, toward the end of his life and for a short time, penniless on the streets of New York City. Santa Anna lost a leg in battle and the leg took on a life of its own, becoming a sort of saintly relic in Catholic Mexico. The veneration of the leg was interrupted, the leg dragged through the streets and thrown to the dogs while its owner was still alive, fitting, perhaps – the general was no saint, and how does a man react when he learns his leg, miles away, has become both the cause and the victim of a riot? Santa Anna shrugged.
Santa Anna was in some ways very capable but he was mostly cruel.
He learned about fighting when he was just a teenager and Mexico was still a part of the Spanish Empire. His teacher was a man named Arredondo who was also a capable soldier but whose success depended partly on spreading fear. Prisoners who surrendered were executed, a tactic Santa Anna learned well and implemented at the Alamo and Goliad and elsewhere. Civilians were massacred too. Both Arredondo and Santa Anna were terrorists, by their own century’s standards, ours too.
The Raven, Sam Houston, comes late to the drama. Born in Tennessee, he didn’t arrive in Teja until long after Mexico had won its independence from Spain and Tejas was struggling to become Texas.
Houston was a frontiersman and an anomaly. Imagine a man who goes off to live with the Indians and who, while running through the woods with his adopted people, stops and pulls a copy of the Illiad out of his pocket, sits down and reads. Not your typical woodsie. I was reminded of Peter O'Toole as the eccentric Englishman, Lawrence of Arabia, in the 1962 movie, and of David Carradine in the 1970s classic western TV show, Kung-Fu. There are sketches in the book by Charles Shaw, well-known artist of things Texas and one of those sketches captures the essential Sam Houston. While still a young man and living with the Indians and visiting the settlements, Sam insists on dressing in Indian fashion, long blanket, feathers and moccasins. The Indian garb, like a lot about Houston in his lifetime, offends people and does Sam not realize he’s offensive or does he not care? Probably the latter.
The book presents the Eagle and the Raven in alternating chapters and with a sense they are careening toward a showdown, which comes at the battle of San Jacinto. (I suppose if this were fiction instead of narrative, they’d have met at the Alamo, but Sam Houston was too smart to get holed up in an old church, like Davy Crockett and Jim Bridger and John Wayne.) You probably know, or can guess how it all turns out, it’s Texas today, not Tejas, but you’ll feel the rush of excitement, the acceleration, as you move toward the (seemingly inevitable) denouement.
My recommendation ─ anytime you come across a James Michener book that’s something less than a thousand-page blockbuster, read it. He’s that good. And you might want to try one of his longer ones too, if you never have. Don’t be daunted by their size. Michener’s smooth prose will carry you along and you’ll get through it more quickly than what you might have thought.
Michener’s The Eagle and The Raven comes in at just over two hundred pages. Michener calls it narrative fiction, I call it non-fiction YA, not vampirish, grammar-stunted YA, call it historical YA, non-contemporary, historical YA, which isn’t to say it’s not suitable for adults, it is. It’ll just seem breezy.
The first thirty or so of those two-hundred plus pages are a kind of long introduction that really doesn’t have much, if anything to do with the story itself, except for a few pages telling us how the book came about. (It was a piece excised from one of Michener’s behemoths – Texas, 1120 pages.)
The rest of the introduction is Michener telling us (boasting,) about how prolifically he was writing in the nineteen-eighties, his last full decade of work. (He died in 1997 at the age of ninety.)
The book is the juxtaposition of two men who are, each in his way, the quintessential representative of his people at a turbulent time in Texas history, the period from roughly 1810 to 1870. During those years, Texas went from a colony of Spain, to a state of Mexico, to an independent country, to an American state, to a Confederate state and back to an American state again.
The Eagle is Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, otherwise and usually known as Santa Anna, or, as he fancied himself, the Napoleon of the West. The Eagle was eleven times president of Mexico, four times banished from his country, and, toward the end of his life and for a short time, penniless on the streets of New York City. Santa Anna lost a leg in battle and the leg took on a life of its own, becoming a sort of saintly relic in Catholic Mexico. The veneration of the leg was interrupted, the leg dragged through the streets and thrown to the dogs while its owner was still alive, fitting, perhaps – the general was no saint, and how does a man react when he learns his leg, miles away, has become both the cause and the victim of a riot? Santa Anna shrugged.
Santa Anna was in some ways very capable but he was mostly cruel.
He learned about fighting when he was just a teenager and Mexico was still a part of the Spanish Empire. His teacher was a man named Arredondo who was also a capable soldier but whose success depended partly on spreading fear. Prisoners who surrendered were executed, a tactic Santa Anna learned well and implemented at the Alamo and Goliad and elsewhere. Civilians were massacred too. Both Arredondo and Santa Anna were terrorists, by their own century’s standards, ours too.
The Raven, Sam Houston, comes late to the drama. Born in Tennessee, he didn’t arrive in Teja until long after Mexico had won its independence from Spain and Tejas was struggling to become Texas.
Houston was a frontiersman and an anomaly. Imagine a man who goes off to live with the Indians and who, while running through the woods with his adopted people, stops and pulls a copy of the Illiad out of his pocket, sits down and reads. Not your typical woodsie. I was reminded of Peter O'Toole as the eccentric Englishman, Lawrence of Arabia, in the 1962 movie, and of David Carradine in the 1970s classic western TV show, Kung-Fu. There are sketches in the book by Charles Shaw, well-known artist of things Texas and one of those sketches captures the essential Sam Houston. While still a young man and living with the Indians and visiting the settlements, Sam insists on dressing in Indian fashion, long blanket, feathers and moccasins. The Indian garb, like a lot about Houston in his lifetime, offends people and does Sam not realize he’s offensive or does he not care? Probably the latter.
The book presents the Eagle and the Raven in alternating chapters and with a sense they are careening toward a showdown, which comes at the battle of San Jacinto. (I suppose if this were fiction instead of narrative, they’d have met at the Alamo, but Sam Houston was too smart to get holed up in an old church, like Davy Crockett and Jim Bridger and John Wayne.) You probably know, or can guess how it all turns out, it’s Texas today, not Tejas, but you’ll feel the rush of excitement, the acceleration, as you move toward the (seemingly inevitable) denouement.
July 9, 2018
Bereft of notes and sources, this so-called "historical narrative" is worse than fiction. Michener makes wild assertions based on his own racial prejudices and religious intolerance. Treatment of the two main characters, Santa Anna and Sam Houston, is disparate and disappointing. Houston is portrayed as a lovable frontiersman with a propensity to brawl, glazing over the fact that he abused his wife, raped Native American women, and murdered his own slaves. Such facts are mentioned yet justified by Michener, who gleefully condemns Santa Anna's foibles, conveniently overlooking the fact that Houston undoubtedly behaved worse. Aside from the characters, Michener's interpretation of historical data is atrocious. He fabricates Santa Anna's "atrocities" while simultaneously discounting any historical source that contradicts his own fabricated narrative that is so clearly in favor of Houston. Such a narrative does great disservice to the true facts of history. Please do yourself a favor and do not read this book.
May 15, 2014
My personal level of enjoyment of this book was closer to a 2.5. I chose it thinking that I had missed an unusually short Michener novel and thus, expected a fictionalized comparison of Sam Houston and Santa Anna and how their lives overlapped. Regarding the subject matter I was right, but the book is a historical review and not a novel. In the forward, Michener reveals that he had originally written it as a chapter (!!) of his book "Texas," but was advised to take it out. He admits that it was good advice.
March 16, 2016
It was the worst book I've ever read in my life. It's about history and I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate history books. I do not recommend this if you're interested in more action things. I asked 19 people who have read it "Did you read the book?" Most of the answers are No or I skim read it. There is about only 3 people I know who think this book is good. DO NOT READ THIS HORRIBLE BOOK PLEASE. (That will save you some time. Instead read a better book.)
September 8, 2010
I've usually enjoyed Michener's style and stories, but this one didn't grab me at all. According to Michener's prologue, this is a chapter that had been taken out of his longer work Texas. A brief read that profoundly blurs the borders of fiction and non-fiction, this "novelette" tells the parallel stories of Sam Houston (the Raven) and Santa Anna (the Eagle.) Because the stories do not intersect except for the battle at San Jacinto, they would have been better told as two longish magazine articles. The summary "compare and contrast" feels forced. The introductory prologue, in which Michener tells about a ten-year creative spurt at the end of his life, is by far more interesting than the book.
February 26, 2019
A quick and fun read that is a broad overview of the conflict between Texas and Mexico, barely scratching the surface of that issue - including only 2-3 pages dedicated to the Alamo, while an in-depth account of the lives of Sam Houston and Santa Ana. I learned quite a bit about both men as well as the geopolitics of the era, especially in Mexico.
Not the most detailed account, but very readable and a pleasant way to learn about an interesting and often overlooked part of American history. Not for those wanting a thorough accounting of the Texas war for independence, but a great starting point for looking at that issue.
Not the most detailed account, but very readable and a pleasant way to learn about an interesting and often overlooked part of American history. Not for those wanting a thorough accounting of the Texas war for independence, but a great starting point for looking at that issue.
July 24, 2018
After beginning the section on Santa Anna, which was not far into this book, I found myself questioning whether Mr. Michener really was the author, given:
How short it is
How large the font
How close to some propagandistic attitudes the history given in Mexico seemed
The publisher
I did not read further, once these questions emerged, even after some prayerful consideration.
How short it is
How large the font
How close to some propagandistic attitudes the history given in Mexico seemed
The publisher
I did not read further, once these questions emerged, even after some prayerful consideration.
August 5, 2013
My Dad gave me this book to read, he's awesome, so whether this book was awesome or not (it was) I was going to like it. I now want to show off how much I've learned about the history of Texas, but I just don't know if I'll ever have a chance.
November 28, 2018
Interesting and informative, on a small scale. This was material that was cut from a larger work on Texas. Apparently, Michener was getting hard up for cash.
September 24, 2021
If you are a Texan then this is a must-read!
June 29, 2022
Interesting and quick
July 5, 2022
This was an interesting history lesson. It wasn't too long and boring.
May 4, 2021
This one was probably an accountant’s move. Before I say anything else, please make sure you don’t pay full price for this thing. I bought it used for $1.00. It was an o.k. purchase for $1.00. Had I spent any more than that, I probably would have felt gypped. Michener himself states in the forward of this book, that this “novel” was a rejected chapter from his behemoth book “Texas”. For whatever reason, that chapter has now been resurrected into its own book. Apparently, he did something similar with his novel “Journey”. THAT one was excised from the larger work “Alaska”. I haven’t read “Journey” yet, but after reading this one, I can sincerely say that such endeavors aren’t really worthy of one’s time.
I mentioned that this book has a Foreword. It also has several appendices, lots of illustrations (rough sketches, nothing serious), a color supplement featuring drawings of the two protagonists as well as the author (why?), big print, and lots of space between several of the pages. So whatever the page length is, you can probably hack off a good 25-30% of those page numbers since so much of what is here is basically superfluous. It’s never a good thing when a book has this much padding.
In fact, the Forward is the most interesting thing about the book. In this introductory section, Michener talks about how the book came to be, but he also talks about several of his (really long but good) novels that he wrote in his 70s and 80s. Given his advanced age, this was quite the accomplishment. One wishes he would have kept writing about his escapades as a septuagenarian author, and not actually diverted his focus to this supposed “novel”.
In fact, this really isn’t a novel. This is more of a dual biography of Santa Anna and Sam Houston; the two foes who would eventually face off in the battle of San Jacinto after the infamous slaughter at the Alamo. This was a very big part of the history of Texas, but Michener never actually told straight history in his novels. He would use real people and places as background, and they may make a fictitious cameo, but had this “chapter” been left in the Texas novel, it would have been radically out of place since this is essentially straight history.
Now, the dual biography here isn’t poorly written. In fact it’s quite good. It just seems rather unnecessary. The seriously curious would obviously look elsewhere since this is rather abridged. In fact, this might have been a good primer for a student in high school or junior high school if some of the verbiage wasn’t so R rated (lots of sex, violence, and sex and violence). The chapters essentially alternate focus between Santa Anna (the “Eagle”) and Houston (the “Raven”). To be honest, I didn’t see many similarities between the “Eagle” and the “Raven”, so the contrasts and comparisons the author alleges seem nothing more than a silly exercise. Sure, we learn some things about each individual, but I never saw the need to juxtapose the two.
A fair read I guess, but one would hope that these type offerings would be rare and the novice reader won’t make a mistake of shelling out hard earned cash for something so minimal.
I mentioned that this book has a Foreword. It also has several appendices, lots of illustrations (rough sketches, nothing serious), a color supplement featuring drawings of the two protagonists as well as the author (why?), big print, and lots of space between several of the pages. So whatever the page length is, you can probably hack off a good 25-30% of those page numbers since so much of what is here is basically superfluous. It’s never a good thing when a book has this much padding.
In fact, the Forward is the most interesting thing about the book. In this introductory section, Michener talks about how the book came to be, but he also talks about several of his (really long but good) novels that he wrote in his 70s and 80s. Given his advanced age, this was quite the accomplishment. One wishes he would have kept writing about his escapades as a septuagenarian author, and not actually diverted his focus to this supposed “novel”.
In fact, this really isn’t a novel. This is more of a dual biography of Santa Anna and Sam Houston; the two foes who would eventually face off in the battle of San Jacinto after the infamous slaughter at the Alamo. This was a very big part of the history of Texas, but Michener never actually told straight history in his novels. He would use real people and places as background, and they may make a fictitious cameo, but had this “chapter” been left in the Texas novel, it would have been radically out of place since this is essentially straight history.
Now, the dual biography here isn’t poorly written. In fact it’s quite good. It just seems rather unnecessary. The seriously curious would obviously look elsewhere since this is rather abridged. In fact, this might have been a good primer for a student in high school or junior high school if some of the verbiage wasn’t so R rated (lots of sex, violence, and sex and violence). The chapters essentially alternate focus between Santa Anna (the “Eagle”) and Houston (the “Raven”). To be honest, I didn’t see many similarities between the “Eagle” and the “Raven”, so the contrasts and comparisons the author alleges seem nothing more than a silly exercise. Sure, we learn some things about each individual, but I never saw the need to juxtapose the two.
A fair read I guess, but one would hope that these type offerings would be rare and the novice reader won’t make a mistake of shelling out hard earned cash for something so minimal.
February 19, 2025
This was a very entertaining and informative book juxtaposing the lives of two generals which intersected briefly in 1836 at the Battle of San Jacinto. The book gave a brief history of the lives of both Sam Houston and Santa Anna by covering one of them up to a certain point in his life and then switching over to the other subject to a similar stage in his life and then jumping back again to the other person.
From this book I gleaned some interesting facts about each of them including some trivia like the fact that Francis Scott Key represented Houston in a trial in Washington, D.C. in 1832, the fact that Will Rogers was a direct descendant of Houston’s Indian wife (Tiana Rogers), the fact that the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 lasted just 18 minutes, and the fact that the condition of the Mexican Army in that time period was so miserable that wives and children and a whole procession of servants and personal attendants followed behind the Army in order to support the individual soldiers and their families since they were so indigent.
Finally the book is provides amazing similarities and contrasts between the two generals. They were so alike in that they were adventurers who experienced wonderful victories on the battlefield and achieved positions of power, only to suffer exile and die in disgrace.
From this book I gleaned some interesting facts about each of them including some trivia like the fact that Francis Scott Key represented Houston in a trial in Washington, D.C. in 1832, the fact that Will Rogers was a direct descendant of Houston’s Indian wife (Tiana Rogers), the fact that the decisive Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 lasted just 18 minutes, and the fact that the condition of the Mexican Army in that time period was so miserable that wives and children and a whole procession of servants and personal attendants followed behind the Army in order to support the individual soldiers and their families since they were so indigent.
Finally the book is provides amazing similarities and contrasts between the two generals. They were so alike in that they were adventurers who experienced wonderful victories on the battlefield and achieved positions of power, only to suffer exile and die in disgrace.
February 3, 2023
This book was about two men who were very influential on the battle of San Jacinto which was in 1836. The book goes into their individual lives leading up to how and why they became involved in the battle. Sam Huston was a governor who got caught up in a scandal and had to flee and step down from his position. He then eventually moved to Mexico City in Texas where he bought land and converted to being a part of the Catholic Church. Santa Anna lived and grew up in Mexico. He worked his way up the chain of military, where he eventually became the president of Mexico numerous times because of how the government was structured. These two are adversaries in the battle which was won by Texas. The battle gave them independence from Mexico and opened the door for Texas to continue westward expansion of the United States. How I would teach this is by referring back to the revolutionary war and how that war was about independence and showing how this is also similar to Texas trying to get independence. I would use this to make similar connections between this battle and the war.
March 14, 2022
I don't remember where I got this but I was so amazed that it was a small book (and I love James Michener) that I thought I'd give it a shot. It turns out that this particular book was an expanded version of a chapter that was cut from the Michener book "Texas". I did learn some interesting things about both the Eagle and the Raven (Santa Anna and Sam Houston). I guess that in studying the history of the Alamo and the great "win" that Santa Anna celebrated there, I never really knew about the follow up on his life. His great defeat at San Jacinto and the number of times that he was exiled from his own country. If you're a history buff, this little slice of history should be a great read for you and you wouldn't even have to carve out the normal time for reading a Michener novel.
February 20, 2018
After reading Promised Lands: A Novel of the Texas Rebellion, I spotted this book tucked away, almost hidden, on our bookshelves at home. Every Texan, at least those who were born and raised in Texas, know about the the heroes of the Alamo, the fight for independence from Mexico, Sam Houston, the first President of Texas, and of course, General Santa Anna and his surrender at the Battle of San Jacinto.
So naturally, I had to find out more about these out-sized players in Mexican and Texas history. Thanks to James Michener for his short (by his standards) biographies of these two men—-the Eagle and the Raven.
So naturally, I had to find out more about these out-sized players in Mexican and Texas history. Thanks to James Michener for his short (by his standards) biographies of these two men—-the Eagle and the Raven.
September 23, 2025
This is an interesting study of rivals Santa Anna and Sam Houston, their backgrounds, their personalities, and their circumstances that brought them to the decisive Battle of San Jacinto on 21 April 1836. The battle lasted only 18 minutes and determined the future of Texas.
However, the Prologue to the book was nearly as interesting as the book. In it, Michener revealed how he happened to write ten books and publish seven of them between 1986 and 1990, keeping in mind that it usually took him three years to write one book.
However, the Prologue to the book was nearly as interesting as the book. In it, Michener revealed how he happened to write ten books and publish seven of them between 1986 and 1990, keeping in mind that it usually took him three years to write one book.
October 9, 2018
Michener's novella explores the characters of Sam Houston and Santa Anna. While both were quite the egotists, Santa Anna seems to have crossed over into narcissism. Although I couldn't admire either man's character, I'd a whole lot rather be associated with Houston than with Santa Anna. I read this for a reading challenge: a book about a Texas hero.
September 8, 2021
Removed as a chapter in Michener’s book TEXAS, the Eagle is Santa Anna and the Raven is Sam Houston. One finds it hard to believe/imagine how two men could be so bloodthirsty and violent. Not just in battle, but in their treatment of others.
March 31, 2022
Good account of the lives of Sam Houston leader of Texans & Santa Ana leader of Mexican army who fought battle to decide rule of Texas in 1836. Makes good comparisons of the 2 charismatic leaders warts & all. It’s not too long but informative at the same time. Good
September 28, 2017
Educational. Glad we got Sam Houston, not Santa Anna
December 18, 2017
An absolutely fascinating nonfiction about our history that I was never interested in before. Santa Ana and Sam Houston were so much alike and yet so different!
March 7, 2018
Makes me want to read all of Michener's tome Texas!
March 22, 2020
An excellent primer on these two monumental figures. Worth picking up for Mr. Michener’s introduction alone, wherein he gives an account of his spectacularly productive eighth decade of life.
December 14, 2020
A small book with a lot of historical information!
January 8, 2021
Wonderful comparison to very unusual historical men, Houston and Santa Anna. Well written and documented.
December 20, 2022
A quick, easy read, worth the time for a few insights into the 1800s time period. It reads like a long chapter from a Michener epic--which it is, being a deleted chapter from his book, Texas.
May 21, 2023
Interesting Texas v. Mexico story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews