The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

He spent a summer working alongside two of his teammates and received expert advice from George Pocock, the Washington team’s adviser and a renowned boatmaker. In his junior year, however, Joe began to let some of his defenses come down-and, not coincidentally, he became a much better rower. He was a talented athlete, but because he was hesitant to befriend his teammates or form a bond of trust with them, he struggled to grow from a good rower into a great one. When he attended the University of Washington and joined the crew team, though, Joe’s independence proved to be a liability. But he also trained himself not to rely on any other human beings-after so many years of betrayal and disappointment, he concluded that he couldn’t depend on anyone other than himself. Joe rose to the task of providing for himself with impressive initiative and drive-the very qualities that later made him an excellent rower. But then he and Thula decided to move away and leave Joe, not yet an adult, to fend for himself. A few years later, Harry married another woman, Thula LaFollette, and began taking care of his son once again.

His mother died when he was a child shortly afterwards, his father, Harry Rantz, fled to Canada, leaving Joe to live with his aunt. Joe’s early life was full of tragedy, which pushed him to become more isolated and individualistic. Joe’s life probably captures the importance of trust, cooperation, and respect more succinctly than that of any of his teammates. In particular, Brown studies the importance of teamwork by documenting the life of one of the nine Olympic team members: Joe Rantz. The Boys in the Boat isn’t just the story of how the 1936 Olympic rowers perfected their technique and power it’s about how the nine teammates (eight oarsmen plus a coxswain) learned to work together, and became lifelong friends in the process. Because oarsmen need to move together so precisely, they must develop a close psychological bond of friendship and respect to succeed.

Even a tiny mistake can throw off the delicate rhythm of the team. As the book explains, rowing is one of the most collaborative sports: on an eight-oar rowing team, all eight rowers must move in perfect or near-perfect synchronization. In order to succeed at the Berlin Olympics, the Americans had to learn how to work together to achieve a common goal-a gold medal. In the book, Daniel James Brown examines the 1936 American Olympic rowing team, made up mostly of juniors from the University of Washington.

Perhaps the most important theme of The Boys in the Boat is teamwork, both in the sense of working as part of a literal team and the metaphorical sense of trusting and cooperating with other people.

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown