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A review by camiandkitread
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.5
Although titled “The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics,” the book primarily focuses on one boy in the boat—Joe Rantz.
Brown wrote a compelling biography of Rantz, retelling his Cinderella story from an abandoned child to an an American Olympian in one of the most politically important Olympics in history. His commentary about how the Nazis meticulously weaponized the 1936 Olympics to “legitimize” themselves to other countries was particularly interesting. However, I didn’t feel that I really learned anything about the other eight Americans and their epic quest for gold until the epilogue, which summarized their lives after the Berlin Olympics.
I was extremely excited to read “The Boys in the Boat” because I thought it would spend more time analyzing the political motivations of the 1936 Olympics, specifically if and how American athleticism was leveraged against the Nazis. The boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics and the use of American and Canadian athletic exceptionalism to make a statement again the Soviet Union is a very interesting part of history and I see some parallels between those Olympic Games and the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but I hoped for a book that Brown did not write.
“The Boys in the Boat” was a mildly interesting read, with plenty of heartwarming and heartbreaking moments alike. It gave an excellent biography of Joe Rantz and touched on the unique difficulties that college athletes faced during the Great Depression, such as finding enough food to fuel themselves. Interesting background about the machinations of the Nazis’ plan to showcase themselves as civilized, athletic super men to the other world powers gave an interesting juxtaposition to the comparatively small scale machinations of the University of Washington crew coach to assemble a team capable of going to the Olympics.
Brown wrote a compelling biography of Rantz, retelling his Cinderella story from an abandoned child to an an American Olympian in one of the most politically important Olympics in history. His commentary about how the Nazis meticulously weaponized the 1936 Olympics to “legitimize” themselves to other countries was particularly interesting. However, I didn’t feel that I really learned anything about the other eight Americans and their epic quest for gold until the epilogue, which summarized their lives after the Berlin Olympics.
I was extremely excited to read “The Boys in the Boat” because I thought it would spend more time analyzing the political motivations of the 1936 Olympics, specifically if and how American athleticism was leveraged against the Nazis. The boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics and the use of American and Canadian athletic exceptionalism to make a statement again the Soviet Union is a very interesting part of history and I see some parallels between those Olympic Games and the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but I hoped for a book that Brown did not write.
“The Boys in the Boat” was a mildly interesting read, with plenty of heartwarming and heartbreaking moments alike. It gave an excellent biography of Joe Rantz and touched on the unique difficulties that college athletes faced during the Great Depression, such as finding enough food to fuel themselves. Interesting background about the machinations of the Nazis’ plan to showcase themselves as civilized, athletic super men to the other world powers gave an interesting juxtaposition to the comparatively small scale machinations of the University of Washington crew coach to assemble a team capable of going to the Olympics.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War
Minor: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism