Summary of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

By . IRB Media

Summary of The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.

Preview:

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, is a non-fiction account of the remarkable life story of Joe Rantz. Rantz was a determined young man who overcame personal tragedy and hardship to win a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics as a member of the US rowing team.

When Joe was four, his mother, Nellie, died of throat cancer. His father, Harry, went to Canada. He sent Joe to Pennsylvania to live with his Aunt Alma while his older brother, Fred, returned to college. A year later, Fred had graduated college and married Thelma. He sent for Joe to live with him and his new wife.

Joe’s father returned and built a new house in Spokane, Washington. He married Thelma’s sister, Thula, a talented violinist. Joe moved in with Harry and Thula…

Inside this Instaread Summary of The Boys in the Boat

• Summary of entire book

• Introduction to the Important People in the book

• Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

About the Author

With Instaread, you can get the summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781683782711

. IRB Media

With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Summary

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown, is a non-fiction account of the remarkable life story of Joe Rantz. Rantz was a determined young man who overcame personal tragedy and hardship to win a gold medal at the 1936 Olympics as a member of the US rowing team.

When Joe was four, his mother, Nellie, died of throat cancer. His father, Harry, went to Canada. He sent Joe to Pennsylvania to live with his Aunt Alma while his older brother, Fred, returned to college. A year later, Fred had graduated college and married Thelma. He sent for Joe to live with him and his new wife.

Joe’s father returned and built a new house in Spokane, Washington. He married Thelma’s sister, Thula, a talented violinist. Joe moved in with Harry and Thula.

Harry found work as a mechanic for a gold mining operation in Idaho and returned home on weekends. One weekend, a fire broke out in the middle of the night. Joe woke, sounded the alarm, and saved his half-brothers, Harry Junior and Mike. Harry saved Nellie’s piano, much to Thula’s anger.

With the house gone, Harry moved the family to the mining town where he worked in Idaho. Thula did not get along with Joe and told Harry she did not want him living with them anymore.  Harry sent Joe to live at the schoolhouse when he was ten years old. Joe had to chop wood for the schoolhouse fire and worked for the mining company’s cook for his meals because Thula refused to provide him