The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown tells a true and uplifting tale about nine kids from working class families during the depression who row for the University of Washington as members of an eight-oar crews. These sons of farmers, loggers, and other low-class jobs go on to defeat the preppy, confident rowing teams of the East coast schools with long, illustrious histories of success in the sport. And, to even further their cause, they defeated the teams of Britain, and went on to compete at the 1936 Berlin Olympics on behalf of the United States. This is a fairly well-known tale, not just as this novel, so I’ll ruin the ending and say that these nine underdogs from the depths of the United States Depression defeat both Italy and even Hitler-led Germany to earn gold.
I chose this book because I found that it struck a nice balance between a good read, and entertaining read, and a basis for research, as it brings up questions regarding the sport of rowing, the Depression, Germany’s use of hosting the Olympics to cover up their genocide, World War II in general, the list goes on and does an effective job of driving my research.
The novel begins with a description of depression-stricken Seattle, where the protagonist, Joe Rantz, and his band of merry rowers attend the University of Washington. Right off the bat, it is clear that Joe Rantz stands out amongst his wealthy peers. As he describes, “his clothes were not like those of the others students--his trousers not neatly creased, his oxfords neither new nor freshly polished, his sweater neither crisp nor clean but rather an old and rumpled hand-me-down” (13). This is despite the fact that he is both athletic and handsome, two attributes that in his mind are less important than his financial situation. What’s particularly interesting about this protagonist, though, is that the author Daniel James Brown was neighbors with the real Joe Rantz, and much of the inspiration that Brown drew to write the novel came from conversations between the two. This makes for an intimate tone that makes it clear how knowledgeable and comfortable the author is with this material.
My first bit of research delves into the sport of rowing, what’s also known as crew. What most people do not know is that crew was the first sport in the history of the United States to have an inter-collegiate athletic event, between Harvard and Yale in 1852. The sport started on the East coast and in Britain, at the schools Oxford and Cambridge, in the early 1800s. It is a physically demanding sport as a mentally demanding sport, requiring teammates to work in flawless harmony and efficiency.
The next item that peaked my interest was the idea of sports during the Depression. It seemed counterintuitive that sports would be popular during this time of poverty and hunger, and interesting that the protagonist Joe Rantz was putting so much pressure on himself to succeed at rowing. However, sporting events were a successful way to keep people’s minds off of the hard times. In fact, football became huge during the depression. Nebraska is an example of a school that had an immensely popular program, nearly as popular as college football today. And, much like the characters of The Boys in the Boat, the Nebraska football players mostly came from poor families.
So far, I am enjoying the book, and questions continue to pop up as I get further and further.
Dearest Sean,
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting, and I like the ideas you have for where you'll go with the research. The research route I'd be most interested in is sports during world war two abroad and at home. You began to talk about what football was like during the depression and I'm sure overseas there were similar interesting trends especially in Europe. Or generally, what major cultural changes happen during war time that we don't hear about? This year we've read many books that speak towards war's effect on the mind so doing war related research to finish out the year would be appropriate. To focus more on rowing is also viable. It sounds like the book goes into great detail surrounding said "boys in the boat" and their illustrious competitive career. Is there anything specifically you’re curious about? Current rowing culture is very interesting. Many students do it specifically to get into East coast schools and that whole scene. It’s become like a country club sport because of high costs and rowers are predominately white. Maybe discuss what made the sport so popular back in the day because currently rowing isn’t mainstream at all in fact, it’s a mystery to many people. Personally I’m interested in the neurological effects of sports and I think paired with the war Joe would be an interesting case study in an expository paper about what sports do to a man. It’s interesting that people were able to step back from the hardest of times during the depression for the sake of competition and the festivities that come with professional athletics. Again, I like where you’re headed and I think some combination of war and athletics will make for a great project.
-Graham
I like that idea of sports as a diversion in the 30s. I wonder if there are any stats about sports in good economic times versus bad economic times? Also, in the lead up to WWII there were boxing matches like Joe Louis versus Schmeling and, of course, Jesse Owens running in the 1936 Olympics that pitted the American scrappy spirit and the idea of American superiority against Germany's racism. Here you seem to have the scrappy working class also challenging notions of superiority.
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