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    The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
    Unavailable
    The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
    Unavailable
    The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

    Written by Daniel James Brown

    Narrated by Edward Herrmann

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times--the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.

    It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington's eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys' own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man's personal quest.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 4, 2013
    ISBN9781101620137
    Unavailable
    The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
    Author

    Daniel James Brown

    Daniel James Brown is the author of The Boys in the Boat and Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894. He lives in the country east of Redmond, Washington, with his wife and two daughters.

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    Reviews for The Boys in the Boat

    4.5/5

    1,189 ratings147 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Author Daniel James Brown weaves a compelling tale that draws the reader into the action. I had no interest in rowing when I started reading this book, but soon found myself cheering and sitting at the edge of my chair during their competitions. Sure wish Brown wrote history books for school. They'd be much more memorable than textbooks. He crafted an accurate cultural context that readers of many generations can enjoy.
    • 5/5
      What a great read!
    • 5/5
      Troubling. Compelling. Beautiful. This book sent my emotions floating out to places where other books seldom take them.
    • 5/5
      A great story of achievement by a group of boaters and their quest to win the Gold Medal in the 1936 Olympics.
    • 4/5
      There is nothing about this book that would normally catch my attention in the least, but after seeing it on many lists from award finalists to must reads and the basis of an episode of PBS’s American Experience , I figured there must be something to it. Beautifully written story of struggle and success over the backdrop of the Great Depression and the looming World War.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It is a study of human struggle, teamwork, the striving for perfection. As a former Olympic athlete, I can understand what these boys went through to achieve a dream -- and that for some, the dream comes alive as they struggle, and then the struggle only becomes more intense. Also, set against the backdrop of the Berlin Olympics, the struggle is just that much more poignant. My grandfather who was the official doctor of the Hungarian team in 1936, left a wonderful book for me with lots of pictures of those Olympics. This book provides another perspective for me. Well worth the read.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting listen!
    • 4/5
      A recounting of the life of a 1936 Olympic rowing winner. His unidealistic childhood is actually presented. The majority of this work, however centers on Joe Rantz's college life as a crew member in the early 30's at the University of Washington.
    • 5/5
      Oh, bite me. I don't give a crap about crew - who in the book club recommended this title?That was my reaction before reading the book, but holy hell, what a story. It's about the legendary 1936 Olympic rowing team from the University of Washington, comprised mainly of "uncouth" working class boys who were more or less scorned by the privileged students of the elite eastern schools. Against-all-odds victories always make for a good read, but the story of crew member Joe Rantz takes the cake, who as a teenager was literally abandoned by his family and had to forage for food.Of course, the 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin. While we're learning about the crew members, their coaches, and possibly the best boat maker in the world, we also learn about how the Nazis viewed the event as perfect propaganda for their Aryan paradise. They cleansed the city of the most obvious anti-semitism and hired infamous Leni Riefenstahl to film the monstrous film Olympia. Oh, and they clearly tried to rig the rowing competition by changing the rules and giving the Americans the worst lane.A couple quibbles. I don't like hagiography, and would have preferred a more warts-and-all portrayal of the athletes. I would have liked a more thorough discussion of decision to participate in the 1946 Nazi-fest at all. And I would have liked a more complete picture of Joe Rantz's stepmother Thula, who in this book is a stepmother straight out of fairy tales and is just too despicable to be believed.
    • 4/5
      If you liked Unbroken, you'll enjoy The Boys in the Boat. Author even name-checks Zamperini--he competed in the same 1936 Berlin Olympics as this Seattle-based crew team.
    • 4/5
      Great story. Really enjoyed reading it and I would like to see the shell on display at the University of Washington Conibear Shellhouse. How inspiring!
    • 5/5
      Great read! Story of the 1936 Boys Rowing Team from Washington. 75% of the book is the background on a half dozen of the boys, focusing on one, the most unlikely of the bunch. Kept me on the edge of my seat. Written very creatively.
    • 4/5
      Quite an interesting read. It's about a group of University of Washington (Seattle, WA) students who eventually end up rowing their way to a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The book focuses mostly on Joe, a poor boy who was mostly abandoned by his family at the age of 15. It details how he survived and went on to try to get an education at the University of Washington. He went out for crew because making the team would guarantee him a part-time job to help with college expenses. Along the way, he had to go from a depending only on himself mentality to being able to trust his crewmates. Because we know (from the title) that they win gold at the Olympics, some of the mystery as to the outcomes of races (like the Olympic trials) is a bit blunted, but the stories are engrossing and only rarely did I find myself wanting the pace to "hurry up and get to the good parts".
    • 4/5
      In 1936 at the Berlin Olympics nine young men in a rowing crew boat made history. They came from poor or working-class backgrounds and none of them had ever set foot inside a boat before three years or less. That wouldn't be the case for their competitors who came from high-class backgrounds and were well funded and had been training for years and were older than they were and yet they would row away with the gold medal. This book chronicles that journey especially through the life of Joe Rantz.Joe lost his mother at the age of five and was at first sent away to live with an aunt back east while his father in Washington state left for Canada and his much older brother finished college. When his brother, Ben, left college with a wife he moved to Idaho and took Joe with him. Then his father, Harry shows up and marries Ben's wife's twin sister Thula and takes Joe with him back to Washington. Soon children came into the picture and Thula began to take a dislike to the person who reminded him of Harry's beloved first wife, Joe.When they moved to a mining camp in Idaho she insisted that Joe leave the shack they lived in and Harry had him move in with the school teacher. After a brief stay in Thula's parents' basement, they settled in Sequim, Washingon and built a house there. But soon enough Thula would have enough of Joe again and the Great Depression was kicking in really bad. No one was buying their farm goods. So Harry and Thula and the kids left leaving Joe, still a kid himself, behind.Joe found odd ways to make money like playing his guitar for tips and stealing fish from the protected rivers and lakes and eating and selling or trading them for goods. He also set up a system of stealing from the bootlegger and replacing a few of the liquor drops with dandelion wine and selling what he collected to his customers. All through this, he stayed in school. On the bus, he met a girl that he fell in love with named Joyce and she fell for him too. While working out for the gymnastics team he got a visit from the University of Washington's crew coach Al Ulbrickson who gave him his card and an idea was born in Joe's mind. It would take a year after graduating high school of working hard at different jobs to earn enough money to be able to afford the first year of school at the University of Washington, but he did it.When he arrived there, there were over a hundred boys who were looking to try out for crew positions on the freshman, junior varsity, and varsity crew. Soon, though those who thought it would be easy and couldn't take the pain would drop out. Tom Bolles handled the Freshman crew and he never lost in the competition against their fierce rivals California Berkely or at Poughkeepsie at the nationals, where 90,000 people would show up to watch the race because crew was so popular at that time. He was getting his Masters at the University of Washington which is likely why he was still coaching there even though he had received offers from schools back east at prestigious Ivey League colleges where the money would be a great deal more than the pittance the University of Washington paid their coaches.After being pulled in and out of this one particular boat that was doing really well and had in it Shorty Hunt, Stub McMillin, and Roger Morris, Bolles realized that that boat only did well with Joe in it even when Joe was not rowing at his best or erratically. But when Joe was "on" they rowed liked a dream. Which they did when they won the races. But Joe knew that his position was always in jeopardy. The next year they would belong to the enigmatic Ulrickson who didn't know what to do with Joe either and would debate racing the sophomore crew as varsity instead of junior varsity.An important person in this story is George Yeoman Pocock the man who builds the boats for the crew of the University of Washington as well as many other schools. He was born in England and learned from his father how to build boats. When his father's fortunes turned down, to help him out they took what little money they themselves had and went to Canada and went to work in a logging camp. Someone in Canada who had heard of them from England and their talent of building boats and needed a crew boat hired them and that got them started off on their business. George would eventually move to the grounds of the University of Washington for his business. But building boats was more than what he did. He dispensed wisdom on rowing. He invented a special way of rowing years ago that Americans used. When he spoke people listened.Ulbrickson has Pocock talk to Joe and work his magic on the young man and try to reach him as only he can. This is an incredible book of how one man overcame hardship to succeed in life with the help of eight other men and their coaches and one wise advisor. Also the love of a good woman who was there throughout supporting him never leaving his side as others in his life had. It's also a story of underdogs who win despite everything going against them. I have to admit that crew is not an especial interest to me but the author succeeded in making it fascinating. This book has heart and I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      All the rave reviews are right --this was a compelling story about scrappy, working class boys who found the "swing" or flow of rowing together as an unbeatable, magical, fierce crew team to end up winning the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The heart of the story is about Joe Rantz, one boy who's hardscrabble childhood of loss and abandonment fueled his complex psychology & desire to belong and succeed. The book also evokes the Depression era in amazing detail.
    • 3/5
      This was a book club choice. I listened to the audio version. I am not a big sports fan so that part was not very enjoyable for me. A bit to much detail about rowing and the boats themselves for my taste. I did learn a lot about this sport but I enjoyed the story of Joe and how strong a young man he was to endure all the hardships he encountered. The time in history was also interesting for me. So all in all a worthwhile time spent but I am glad I was sewing also.
    • 4/5
      Definitely worth the read. Gave a very good feel for what it is like to be on crew. Also gave a great feel what it was like growing up in the 1920-30s as part of the working poor. I was very interested in the whole feel for what the Berlin Olympics pre-WWII looked like to the participants. At times the book dragged. There were too many minor characters and it was hard to remember each of these people. Also sometimes the actual race sequence seemed to drag on.
    • 4/5
      How did nine college students, many of them working class growing up in the Seattle area during the Depression, take the 1936 Berlin Olympics by surprise in their quest for rowing fame? Daniel James Brown takes you step by step, from the technical details of rowing, creating the boat, and the rivalry between Washington and California in rowing, when Joe Rantz and the other boys showed up as freshman in college to their varsity year and finally to the Olympics.Joe Rantz's story from poor kid, the death of his mother and his father's subsequent remarriage, abandonment and his determination to make something of himself, is very much the heart of this story. Though I liked the technical details for giving me a grasp of a sport I knew nothing about, they also slow down the narrative occasionally "catching a crab" as rowing parlance would have it, making me feel a like the oar of my reading was just a tad stuck in the water. But then an exciting description of a race or the detailed care with which we get to know Joe's thoughts and feelings, or perhaps an observation from one of the other boys, carried me along and finally had me holding my breath through the description of the Olympic race even though I knew the outcome. I was surprised by how little the Olympics played into the story: mostly, it was all about the preparation leading up to that moment. Brown does an excellent job of bringing in other historical details that helped me set the story in a particular time and place, making connections between what was going on in Europe at the time and other sports legends and stories of the 1930s.
    • 5/5
      Underdogs who come out victorious, family drama, Olympic dreams, the Great Depression, and finally beating some Nazis, this book has it all. Brown's prose really makes you feel like you are watching the races and even though you know the outcome you are reading on the edge of your seat, or staying up hours after your bedtime to find out what happens next. I also appreciated that Brown doesn't ignore the horrors that were taking place in Germany around the 1936 Games and those that would come after; he never gets saccharine or get in a soapbox, but he does touch on them as if they were shadows lurking around the brilliance of the boys' story.
    • 3/5
      Didn't love the your readers version although it was interesting enough. I wanted more,which probably the adult version had, but young readers lacked.
    • 5/5
      Great read. Follows the epic path of an amazing university crew in their quest to survive the Great Depression, succeed in life and win Olympic gold. You will learn a lot about the first half of the 20th century with out even trying.Well written hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      I am so glad I read this book. You know the story, you know the outcome but until you read this book you will never know or begin to understand the determination and grit that these young men possessed. Well written, well done.
    • 5/5
      This is one of the greatest stories I've ever read. I closed the book feeling enlightened, moved, proud.. but most of all, inspired.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this narrative non-fiction -- it is about so much more than rowing (which I knew nothing about). Covers how the University of Washington crew, in the midst of the Great Depression, makes it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and win gold.My heart was won over by their determination in spite of personal hardships (especially those endured by Joe Rantz, whose experiences were focused on the most in this story).Highly readable, and will stay in my mind for a long time, not to mention that I will be recommending it to nearly everyone.
    • 5/5
      Boffo nonfiction entry; retells the true story of Americans winning Olympic gold in the 1932 Berlin games. The boys are working class and not privileged (the main character, Joe Rantz, literally does not have enough to eat and is kicked out of the house at age 17). Their improbably rise to the world stage makes for inspirational reading. Author Brown works from diaries and witnesses to create a vivid story. The final race is something Hollywood could not concoct!
    • 4/5
      Rowing and WWII: neither is a subject I'm much interested in reading about, but this book is so well written and engaging that I was totally pulled in. I knew the final outcome and I still felt on edge at each critical stage in the journey to get there. I got goose bumps, I had tears, I really enjoyed reading this well researched and creatively written account of Joe and his cohorts struggling through life and achieving their dreams.
    • 5/5
      One of the benefits of book discussion groups is that you read books that you generally wouldn't pick up. This is the case for me in reading The Boys in the Boat, a history book the University of Washington's rowing crew trials in winning the gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which became a new favorite. According to the blurb on the rear cover, "the emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects," who worked summers in the midst of the Great Depression to attend college. Although initially a loner, he found a purpose and a new family with his crew members and coaches. If you read and enjoyed any of Erik Larson's book or Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, this book about loyalty, commitment, perseverance, and surrender to self should be read. I found myself cheering as I read about their racing wins, drawing their strength from some inner, indiscernible reservoir.
    • 5/5
      Rating: ADaniel James Brown is a brilliant storyteller. He develops context and surrounds the reader with the knowledge of being there. This story is the heroic tale of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. It is a great study in leadership and teamwork.
    • 5/5
      Outstanding
    • 4/5
      Narrated by Mark Bramhall. Wow, this makes me want to watch a crew race if not actually experience the swing of rowing. (That would never happen for me, ha!) Bramhall's sonorous tone keeps listeners vested in Joe's life experiences and even the races are suspenseful listening, even though we all know how the Olympic race ended. The young reader's version does feel it is missing some heft but otherwise it is an amazing, inspiring story of overcoming odds and expectations.