Boys in the Boat Essay
Resilient Rowers of the 1936 Olympics
“In an age when Americans enjoy dozens of cable sports channels, when professional athletes often command salaries in the tens of millions of dollars...it’s hard to fully appreciate how important the rising prominence of the University of Washington’s crew was to the people of Seattle in 1935” (Brown 173). As seen by this quote, America is a much different place than what it was in the 1930s. The times have changed significantly. In today’s day and age we have it all too good. The world we live in is one of leisure and not nearly as much hard work as there used to be. Back in the early 20th century the people had it pretty rough and dealt with many frightening problems of their generation such as World Wars and the Great Depression. The non‐fiction novel, Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown, takes place in this turbulent time period of US history that started around the 1930s. The book is the story of how the University of Washington’s crew won the 1935 Berlin Olympics. The main character, Joe Rantz, and his team start off as an inexperienced freshman crew at the university and worked their way to the top amongst many obstacles. The story is one of great heroism and persistence that takes place during the heart of the US’s struggles. The lives of the great Olympic athletes were affected by this time period in several ways. The Great Depression greatly amplified the athlete’s drive to succeed as well as their great sense of patriotism, and the less complicated technology of the time allowed them to invest wholeheartedly in the handcrafted vessel in which they rowed.
The book begins in 1933 in Seattle on a gloomy day. It was the fourth year of the Great Depression and at this point it seemed like it would last forever. “Nobody could say when, or if, the hard times would ever end” (Brown 9). The time period brought on a bleak, depressing, and failing society. Howard Zinn, in his article called Self‐Help in Hard Times, provided a
“In an age when Americans enjoy dozens of cable sports channels, when professional athletes often command salaries in the tens of millions of dollars...it’s hard to fully appreciate how important the rising prominence of the University of Washington’s crew was to the people of Seattle in 1935” (Brown 173). As seen by this quote, America is a much different place than what it was in the 1930s. The times have changed significantly. In today’s day and age we have it all too good. The world we live in is one of leisure and not nearly as much hard work as there used to be. Back in the early 20th century the people had it pretty rough and dealt with many frightening problems of their generation such as World Wars and the Great Depression. The non‐fiction novel, Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown, takes place in this turbulent time period of US history that started around the 1930s. The book is the story of how the University of Washington’s crew won the 1935 Berlin Olympics. The main character, Joe Rantz, and his team start off as an inexperienced freshman crew at the university and worked their way to the top amongst many obstacles. The story is one of great heroism and persistence that takes place during the heart of the US’s struggles. The lives of the great Olympic athletes were affected by this time period in several ways. The Great Depression greatly amplified the athlete’s drive to succeed as well as their great sense of patriotism, and the less complicated technology of the time allowed them to invest wholeheartedly in the handcrafted vessel in which they rowed.
The book begins in 1933 in Seattle on a gloomy day. It was the fourth year of the Great Depression and at this point it seemed like it would last forever. “Nobody could say when, or if, the hard times would ever end” (Brown 9). The time period brought on a bleak, depressing, and failing society. Howard Zinn, in his article called Self‐Help in Hard Times, provided a
Cited: Brown, Daniel. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. New York: Penguin, 2014. Print. Crosby, Josh. “Me Time.” Rowing Magazine Apr. 2014: 61. Web. Zinn, Howard. “SelfHelp in Hard Times.” In A People’s History of the United States, 377406. New York : Harper Collins, 2003.