Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

It seems when people are at their lowest points, they look for and find a hero to lift their spirits and take their minds off their own hardships.  We seem to be overrun with superheroes currently.  Marvel comics is a growing industry; the world it seems is in dire straights and needs to be rescued, maybe from itself.  Throughout our country's history, we have had many threatening events but the one that still connects to us is the Great Depression of 1929.  Even though we did not live through this time period, our parents and grandparents did and we felt their pain and witnessed their fear in all likelihood.  During this critical time there were many well know heroes especially in sports.  People have long remembered such heroes as those in baseball or boxing and even an Olympic hero, Jesse Owens.  Daniel Brown in his book Boys in the Boat, has revealed the little known story of the eight man rowing team from Washington University who, against all odds, won the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in German.  These young men clearly embodied the rise of the underdog to vanquish insurmountable foes.  They were never seen as the standard within the rowing community that for the most part was reserved for the elite of the Iv y league schools.  Not only did these eight men beat the beat America had to offer, but they defeated the furor's team which represented the white, pure Arian race of the Germany of WWII.  Brown did a masterful job of integrating the story of the Washington team into a fact filled explanation of German preparation for the 1936 Olympics where their intent was to show Germany as a progressive, modern world leader.  Brown obviously was inspired by the story of this rowing team and as often. happens, in telling this tale, he inspired us with real life heroes to be sure.