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

I couldn’t put this book down. I thought it was well written and the subject matter was very interesting. I enjoyed reading about the history of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin at a time when the USA was in a depression. The book was well researched! I felt that the author did a great job explaining the personalities of “the boys in the boat”!

One of our boys decided out of the blue to try out for college Crew. We'd heard of the book but suddenly really needed to read it. Excellent writing, some of the best ever describing life in the U.S. in truly difficult times, made more special by its setting in our part of the country. It described what our son was going through as he tried out for the spring team and made it. The book helped us understand the new terms he was speaking, the roles of the team members, the challenges and benefits of competitive rowing. The story grabs the reader and never lets go, exhilarating and sobering at turns, the adventure of lives well lived. There are lessons for each of us, but especially for young men to be and their parents, without the slightest hint of preaching or teaching. Get it, you won't be disappointed.

In 1936, nine working-class boys from the University of Washington went to the Berlin Olympics in a quest for the gold medal. Their sport: rowing, a sport of which George Yeoman Pocock said, "That is the formula for endurance and success: rowing with the heart and the head as well as physical strength." It is an emotional, mental, and physical sport which, in this particular case, asks that nine human beings be in perfect tune with each other.Author Daniel James Brown does an excellent job of putting his story into the context of the world stage, a time in which Hitler was determined to become master of the world-- and also a time when the world was still in the grip of the Depression.At the heart of The Boys in the Boat is Joe Rantz of the University of Washington rowing team. At the age of ten, he was abandoned by his parents. Joe's father was willing to follow the lead of his second wife, a woman who decided that there were too many mouths to feed and that this child had to go. At one point, she told him, "Make your own life, Joe. Stay out of ours." Brown builds his story from the boys' journals and vivid memories, and it's a true Cinderella story. These boys were competing in an elite sport normally thought of as belonging to the privileged rich of the East Coast.Often compared to Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, I found The Boys in the Boat more in tune with another of her books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend, with its emphasis on sport, the Depression, and a fascinating cast. As much as I savored the stories of the boys on the University of Washington rowing team, I also appreciated the in-depth look at the sport of rowing itself. I never knew how popular it was in the 1930s or how demanding it was.If you're in the mood for a thrilling, eye-opening, often heart-wrenching, slice of history, I highly recommend The Boys in the Boat.

Oh, my. How do I describe this book--and the extraordinary value of reading it together with your team? If I write a dull, been-there-read-that review, you might surmise the book is equally dull. It's not!What if...I bet the farm and predicted that "The Boys in the Boat" will be my 2014 book-of-the-year pick? (Would that get your attention?)What if...I said this true story of "Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" included my pick for the most exquisite description--I've ever read--of what a high performance team looks like?What if...I told you that Bill Butterworth, the author of  On the Fly Guide to...Building Successful Teams , wrote me recently after I had reviewed  Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption ? He noted, "Unbroken is the best book I've read in the last couple of years! Wanna know what comes in at Number Two? It's called The Boys in the Boat. I couldn't put it down. Everybody I've recommended it to hates my guts because they can't put it down once they start it."Author Daniel James Brown writes narrative nonfiction books and his primary interest as a writer is "in bringing compelling historical events to life as vividly and accurately" as he can. Trust me, he can!Back before American football owned it all, sports fans in the 1930s (a tough time) embraced university rowing teams with remarkable fanaticism. In Seattle, the lakeshore crowds at the eight-oar crew races between the University of Washington and the University of California at Berkeley rivaled the "12th man" stupor over the NFL Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks.What if...I were still leading a team? Here's how I would leverage the power of this book:--Buy one book (or Kindle version) for each team member--and provide a "read and reflect" learning tool.--Plan a team-building retreat in the next 30 to 90 days.--At the retreat, invest time every morning and evening--listening, listening, and more listening as our team talked about "Elements of Teamwork," as described in The Boys in the Boat.--Enjoy every afternoon in an experiential team-building activity: Rowing (if possible), ropes courses, zip lines, climbing walls, confidence courses, etc.Really--the insights, the drama, the real life stuff-in-the-trenches, is so, so insightful. Some, like Butterworth, will read the book non-stop. Others might enjoy slowly savoring each chapter--including the PowerPoint-worthy insights from George Yeoman Pocock, the master craftsman and leading designer and builder of racing shells in the 20th Century."To be of championship caliber, a crew must have total confidence in each other, able to drive with abandon, confident that no man will get the full weight of the pull...""Pocock-built shells began to win U.S. Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships in 1923." According to Wikipedia, "he achieved international recognition by providing the eight-oared racing shells which won gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics and again in 1948 and 1952. In this era, nearly every collegiate and sport rowing program in America used wooden shells and oars built by Pocock."Trust me--the reverential side trips down historical alleys are stunning. Brown excels in fluid detail. The writing: elegant. The insights: elevating.Here's a keeper from pages 234-235. Listen to the wisdom as Master Boatbuilder Pocock coaches Joe, a young rower with promise and dreams--but a nasty childhood:"He suggested that Joe think of a well-rowed race as a symphony, and himself just one player in the orchestra. If one fellow in an orchestra was playing out of tune, or playing at a different tempo, the whole piece would naturally be ruined."That's the way it was with rowing. What mattered more than how hard a man rowed was how well everything he did in the boat harmonized with what the other fellows were doing. And a man couldn't harmonize with his crewmates unless he opened his heart to them. He had to care about his crew. It wasn't just the rowing but his crewmates that he had to give himself up to, even if it meant getting his feelings hurt."Pocock paused and looked up at Joe. `If you don't like some fellow in the boat, Joe, you have to learn to like him. It has to matter to you whether he wins the race, not just whether you do.'"Then this clincher:"He told Joe to be careful not to miss his chance. He reminded him that he'd already learned to row past pain, past exhaustion, past the voice that told him it couldn't be done. That meant he had an opportunity to do things most men would never have a chance to do. And he concluded with a remark that Joe would never forget."'Joe, when you really start trusting those other boys, you will feel a power at work within you that is far beyond anything you've ever imagined. Sometimes, you will feel as if you have rowed right off the planet and are rowing among the stars.'"Unlike most other sports, says the author, "One of the fundamental challenges in rowing is that when any one member of a crew goes into a slump the entire crew goes with him." How do individual slumps affect morale on your team--or in your family?One of the University of Washington coxswains would often shout to the eight oarsmen, "MIB! MIB! MIB!" Brown writes, "The initialism stood for `mind in boat.' It was meant as a reminder that from the time an oarsman steps into a racing shell until the moment that the boat crosses the finish line, he must keep his mind focused on what is happening inside the boat." What acronym could your team use to keep everyone focused?

This is a wonderful, true story. It chronicles nine working class college athletes and their coaches and other people who in the 1930s did a wonderful job of achievement and winning Olympic Gold in Berlin. It is a triumph against elitism and racism. You really can't to know these actual people and to be happy for their success.

I found myself drawn into this book and learning so much. The true story of the boys and their lives was so interesting and their achievements were phenomenal considering their individual circumstances. I enjoyed learning about the techniques of rowing - having never rowed in my life. The history accompanying the story was extremely well written. I highly recommend this book and look forward to watching the film

This is one of the few Sports books apart from Andre Agassi's OPEN which was successful in moving me Emotionally. i have zero knowledge about Boats but yet the Author was able to explain me what all goes in a Race Shell Making and what role does each Team member perform in that shell during the race. the 18th and 19th Chapters literally brought tears to my eyes where the Author has described the Race day in Berlin, it was as if I was amongst the Olympic spectators experiencing the Race. a truly great Bestseller which can be picked up by any novice and he/she will also enjoy thoroughly.

Incredible, I always read a novel during Christmas and this one will stay with me forever.

日本人にはあまり知られていないが、映画化も決まっていてアメリカ人にはお馴染みなストーリーだと思って読んでみました。ボート競技の勝敗だけでなく、それに関わる多くの人のドラマが織り込まれていて、ボート競技や歴史に興味がない人も楽しめる本です。