The River of Doubt
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.The River of Doubt--it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil's most famous explorer, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide.
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2019–2025years
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What Hacker News says
- River of Doubt - Candice Millard
https://www.candicemillard.com/river-of-doubt.html
Covers Teddy Roosevelt's Amazon expedition. To the comment about "weren't people living in the Amazon" - read the book. The Brazilian government was scouting and mapping the terrain for the project of connecting the coasts with telegraph lines. This was uncharted territory and the chance of not returning was high.
I cannot recommend enough.
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- John Lee is one of my favorite narrators and his reading of the Count of Monte Cristo is wonderful (even at 47 hours).
Ron Chernow’s biographies of Grant, Hamilton, and Washington.
Candice Millard‘s “Hero’s of the Empire” (about Winston Churchill) and “River of Doubt” (Theodore Roosevelt) are both interesting looks at important historical figures in situations we don’t often prescribe to them. Her first book “Destiny of the Republic” (James Garfield) is also good but the other two are superior.
“David and Goliath” by Malcolm Gladwell.
- Related: the Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition through the Amazon River system, in Brazil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt%E2%80%93Rondon_Scien...
The River of Doubt, Roosevelt's documentary of the expedition: https://youtu.be/fKXOtJeaTEQ
A 100-year anniversary expedition visiting the Roosevelt River in Brazil. https://youtu.be/hUACMEJfCvc
Roosevelt wrote, “Tell Osborn I have already lived and enjoyed as much of life as any nine other men I know; I have had my full share, and if it is necessary for me to leave my bones in South America, I am quite ready to do so.” ― Candice Millard, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
“Let us weep,” Rondon would tell them, “for I loved this man who has perished for my sake. But I command you to do as he did. Never shoot.” Rondon believed that his mission in protecting and pacifying the Indians was larger than his own life, larger than any of their lives. He would rather die than surrender his ideals, and he obliged his men to follow suit.” ― Candice Millard, The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
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