The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

If there was ever any doubt about the 26th President of the United States' bona fides as an adventurer and explorer of the first order, Candice Millard dispels it with The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Thanks to Millard's smooth prose and carefully paced storytelling, the reader finds the detailed account of the Roosevelt expedition's journey utterly fascinating. Venturing down a heretofore unexplored tributary of the Amazon River, the President and his team encounter one perilous hardship after another. Roosevelt struggles with adversity, his trademark vigor and determination tested time and again. Besides the ever-present threat of disease-bearing insects and a host of privations, melancholy stalks the sturdiest of men among the expedition.Somehow, they endure.Failing to win election as a third-party candidate and a third term in 2012, the former President is determined to live up to one of his life credos, "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…" He decides to charter a forbidding stretch of the Amazon, nicknamed Rio da Dúvida, or "River of Doubt." The expedition includes Roosevelt's son, Kermit, American naturalist George Kruck Cherrie, Brazil's Colonel Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, an equally formidable leader and fearless adventurer, and 15 Brazilian porters. We discover that none of the members of the expedition is without flaw, and their failures contribute to the difficulties the team must surmount on their journey.Beyond her superb storytelling, Millard's meticulous research holds the reader's interest page after page. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey is chock-full of information about the rainforest's flora and fauna, including a thorough explanation of its ecosystem and Darwinian evolutionary adaptation and competition between species. Most interesting to this reader is the author's history of the Amazon's exploration and her treatment of the indigenous Amazonian Indian tribes – the bellicose Nhambiquarra and the stealthy Cinta Larga – with which the expedition must contend. The Cinta Larga tribe carefully stalks the team throughout its descent of the river, yet for reasons known only to it forgoes an attack.The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey is above all a breathtaking survival story. The members of the expedition find themselves fighting for their very lives. Flesh-eating piranha, treacherous waters, meager rations, hungry insects, disease, and despair conspire to derail the expedition's progress. The dauntless Roosevelt himself is felled by a nasty gash in his leg that, in his weakened state and exposed to unsanitary conditions, brings infection and fever. Though nearly ending his life, the journey instead ends in a hero's welcome in New York Harbor for a somewhat chastened but no less exuberant Roosevelt.Remarkably, roughly a year and a half after a disappointing election defeat, Roosevelt and his compatriots manage to put a tributary of the Amazon on the map literally. With an 8-page bibliography and 39 pages of endnotes, one cannot doubt Millard's prodigious capacity for researching and illuminating a topic. However, it is her impressive ability to weave facts into her narrative to tell a story of courage and perseverance that makes The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey so enjoyable. She also leads us to understand the depths to which men will sink when faced with fear, disease, and hunger. When stripped of concern for their fellow man and struggling to survive, they can succumb to their basest instincts.Fascinating!

Theodore Roosevelt was a man of exceptional vigor, ability, and zest for life. He is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating men ever to hold the American Presidency, and indeed possibly to have ever lived. His biography reads almost like a presciption for getting everything one can out of life -- to seize every adventure, to pursue every ideal, and to hold fast to one's personal moral code.Roosevelt is the star of the terrific story that is told in The River of Doubt, but he is not alone. He is surrounded by a number of other exceptional individuals -- the great Brazilian explorer Colonel Rondon, Roosevelt's own tormented but brave son Kermit, and a group of Brailizian camaradas who range from the most tireless and fearless, to the most venal.The elements of this story are such that it can hardly miss. Roosevelt, Rondon and the others traveled deep into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon to explore territory that no white men had ever explored before. Unimaginable challenges awaited them -- unpredictably difficult terrain, roaring rapids, ravenous jungles, arduous portages, inadequate provisions, cultural barriers within the exploring party, disease-carrying insects, and hostile, cannibalistic, and stealthy indigenous peoples.Terrific though the story is, Ms. Millard's treatment of it is what makes this a truly wonderful book. She has a great gift for relating the sensory flavor of the ecosystem through which Roosevelt and his company traveled. Her descriptions of the vast diversity of survival strategies employed by different species there, in mortal competition with one another, elevate this book above a mere relating of a gripping historical episode. She brings the rain forest to life, and conveys the dangers to Roosevelt's party with an immediacy and comprehension that even the participants could not have fully possessed.What makes the book for me, however, is the depiction of Roosevelt and his keen sense of personal honor. This was a man who refused to be shown any deference, who refused to sit if Colonel Rondon, the Brazilian commander, was not also so seated. This was also a man who, if his ailing condition became a burden to the rest of the expedition, resolved to take his own life rather than to jeopardize those of others.It is truly sobering ro realize how great a risk Roosevelt took in leading this expedition. He could very well have been killed and cannibalized. He might have died of malaria, and indeed almost did. One wonders what a shock it would have been to America to have its beloved former President die under such circumstances.I own several books about Roosevelt's life, and this might be the one that I would first recommend to convey the full flavor of his personality and his values. My wife and I have just had our first child, a daughter, and I found myself hoping that she will, at some point, read of this extraordinary man, and to profit from his example, to lead a richer and fuller life.Remarkable though Roosevelt is, he is not the only fascinating character on the expedition. At times, the Brazilian commander Colonel Rondon's plodding determination to survey the landscape, even at the cost of a risky loss of time and provisions, vexed Roosevelt utterly. This could not, however, diminish the profound respect between the two men. Rondon is himself a phenomenal character, a man who also stayed true throughout his life to an intense personal creed of honor -- someone who would die before killing, even in self-defense. Roosevelt, and the reader, could hardly fail to be impressed by him.Roosevelt's son Kermit, too, is a fascinating presence. In youth, he was Roosevelt's timid son, but over time, he absorbed his father's life lessons and in adulthood had become the most fearless, perhaps the most reckless, of the family. This expedition brought out the most in young Kermit, though his conduct was not without mistakes. Kermit's life ultimately ended in tragedy, but his conduct on this expedition would make any father deeply proud.As should be obvious, this book is highly recommended. Fascinating and inspiring, vivid and educational, it only gets better as it moves along. I believe that by its conclusion most readers would be, as I was, moved and inspired.

Oh well written and engaging story. The book though was printed cheaply, I would prefer larger print and better quality paper.

Not many books keep my interest. I am no judge on literary technique in writing which seems to be of paramount importance to some. The story is what kept me addictively reading this. An inspiring read about a kind of man that is so rare today. Indeed, frowned upon by those sloppy and weak of character progressive types that hate strength, pride, perseverance and grit.

What an amazing journey! The book telling the journey was amazing! You have to wade thru some heavy pro-evolution theology but itvis worth it to relive the journey!

Um livro pouco conhecido, mas sensacional.

Both books bought as gifts and are being enjoyed 👍🏻

Kept me interested. Easy style of writing to get you through hot Summer. Needs a simple map of river of story to stimulate imagination.

Buen Libro... entretenido de principio a fin... Rooselvet y Rodon Admirables

You won’t be able to put it down! I have read several books on Teddy and this one is the most narrow in scope but the most exciting as it only focuses on Teddy’s most dangerous adventure.