Copy shamelessly plagiarized from goodreads.com

Daniel James Brown’s robust book tells the story of the University of Washington’s 1936 eight-oar crew and their epic quest for an Olympic gold medal, a team that transformed the sport and grabbed the attention of millions of Americans. The sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the boys defeated elite rivals first from eastern and British universities and finally the German crew rowing for Adolf Hitler in the Olympic games in Berlin, 1936.

The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home. The crew is assembled  by an enigmatic coach and mentored by a visionary, eccentric British boat builder, but it is their trust in each other that makes them a victorious team. They remind the country of what can be done when everyone quite literally pulls together—a perfect melding of commitment, determination, and optimism.

Drawing on the boys’ own diaries and journals, their photos and memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, The Boys in the Boat is an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate story of nine working-class boys from the American west who, in the depths of the Great Depression, showed the world what true grit really meant. It will appeal to readers of Erik Larson, Timothy Egan, James Bradley, and David Halberstam’s The Amateurs.

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Fortunately Leni Riefenstahl’s remarkable film, Olympia, has preserved much of the 1936 Olympics for us so we can get a visual understanding of much that Brown describes in the gold medal race. This YouTube snippet has 4-man crew, 8-man crew, and diving all together in an approximately 10 minute excerpt:

This author interview with Daniel James Brown is about an hour long, but well worth watching if you have a little time to spare:

Also well worth watching, especially after reading Brown’s description of the lengths to which Riefenstahl went to capture unique camera angles for Olympia, is the footage of the opening ceremonies:

Finally, here is the video of the World Rowing championships that Peter had playing while he was talking to us during our meeting: