“This book was born on a cold, drizzly, late spring day when I clambered over the split-rail cedar fence that surrounds my pasture and made my way through wet woods to the modest frame house where Joe Rantz lay dying…I knew that he had been one of nine young men from the state of Washington—farm boys, fishermen, and loggers—who shocked both the rowing world and Adolf Hitler by winning the gold medal in eight-oared rowing at the 1936 Olympics.”
Those are some lines from the prologue to Daniel James Brown’s 2013 non-fiction book, The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I don’t often review non-fiction books, but over the years, several friends recommended this one. I decided that reading it during the 2026 Olympics was a perfect time.
Once started, I could not put it down. Brown does a masterful job of introducing the key people to the story and slowly building to the final climactic race. He uses Joe Rantz as his main character, a young man who suffered through a very sad childhood, worked non-stop to earn money to go to college and resolved trust issues just in time to help his crew mates win a gold medal in rowing.
Brown also spends time fleshing out the coach, Al Ulbrickson, and the master boat builder George Pocock. The reader learns a lot about the grueling sport of rowing but also how Hitler chose to use the Berlin Olympics to trick the rest of the world into complacency and believing that he was a benevolent leader.
Even if you’ve seen the movie, I encourage you to read the book to get the full picture of this historic event. You really must read The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown.
