The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard (PDF)

Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait—the bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic brings us 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, Cândido 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. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived. From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This is my second book from Candice Mallard and it was even better than River of the Gods. The author has a wonderful way of weaving in the past and present so you learn about historical figures without being bored by history. I had to share the book with my mother, and we snatched it when one of us wasn’t looking–that’s how delicious of a read it is.

⭐I love adventure stories. For anyone who has traveled and experienced the jungle you know what an amazing, foreign, dangerous and challenging world it is. The true depth of a person’s soul is revealed in this world. This book takes you into the pit of it. You see how Roosevelt the man conducted himself with honor and dignity despite insurmountable difficulties and poor health. They just don’t make them like him anymore.

⭐Such a good book! The story was very well researched and it is very interesting. Full of details about the landscape and the character and personality of the men involved

⭐Fascinating adventure. Very well written. An in depth look at an extraordinary American icon. An eye opening description of the Amazonian rain forest. Not what I had imagined.

⭐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!

⭐Very well written book.

⭐This story is fantastic. TR’s near death experience in the South American jungle is hardly known, and this book tells that story sensationally.

⭐Captured the interesting and captivating story of Teddy Roosevelt.?

⭐An absolutely stunning story… I first I thought the book was a little slow and cumbersome but as the story went on it made up for it and found that the story went on the pace of the story was identical to the rhythm of the story it’s self.. I knew very a little about the story but very soon became completely absorbed in this incredibly epic story I could not put this book down I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in both Roosevelt and story’s of discovery of the Amazon… and of course his team that journeyed with him.. I won’t forget this book beautiful written and leaves you in sheer admiration for what these mean went through

⭐Very interesting story. Item delivered quicly.

⭐Interesting book.

⭐Amazing, truly inspiring

⭐I really couldn’t put this book down. It is historic adventure at it’s best and one of the best books of its kind I have ever read. The Characters are well drawn; Roosevelt’s genuine and prinicpled courage, shared by his son, Kermit, and the remarkable Colonel Rondon, explorer, surveyer and friend to the very hostile tribes of the region. Even the infamous, Julio, murderer and thief emerges as a real person. Candice Millard has done a terrific job with this book; her prose is flawless and she captures the claustrophobic horrors of the deep jungle, both inhospitable and very alive. Her forays into history, anthropology and biology are also quite welcome. Highly recommended!

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