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| The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey | 
 enlarge | Author: Candice Millard
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.69
You Save: $8.26 (55%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (211 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2413
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0767913736
Dewey Decimal Number: 918.113045
EAN: 9780767913737
ASIN: 0767913736
Publication Date: October 10, 2006
Release Date: October 10, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Adventure April 4, 2008
A real story, a real adventure, all done by a former President of the United States. Since I slept thru most of my history classes, this book offers great insight into what I've now learned to be one of the greatest men to lead this country.
A very satisfying read and highly recommended.
Brilliant book March 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a spectacular book. The author did a fantastic job in bringing together adventure, history and a little bit of science, with a very good narrative and great character development. In fact, it would make a terrific "Indiana Jones-style" movie.
As a Brazilian, I have always admired Candido Rondon as a real life hero, and this book only confirmed my admiration. He was well ahead his time in his view of protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples. As the author recalls, Albert Einstein proposed his name for the Nobel Prize of Peace.
Even in Brazil, very few people know much about the Rondon-Roosevelt expedition. Contrary to my initial assumptions, I learned that Roosevelt's trip to Brazil was not a mere "celebrity safari", but a real scientific expedition with scientific added value. The "River of Doubt" (now called River Roosevelt) in the Amazon basin was uncharted until 1914 and it is as big as the Rhine.
The Inner Man & The Law of the Jungle March 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Deep into this book and deep into the account of this harrowing journey, Candice Millard uses these four simple words: "low threshold for discomfort." By this point in the account of Theodore Roosevelt's trek down the river, I wonder if we really can imagine precisely what those conditions felt like. I wonder if we can transport ourselves to that moment. This is a compelling book. What's missing? Nothing. If you read a few complaints in other reviews posted here about detours to discuss interesting aspects about the Amazon, disregard. These are all relevant, and relatively brief, passages that have a direct bearing on the environment and context of this trip. Millard does a fabulous job of interweaving details of nature and all its dangers with the account of the trip itself, which is harrowing (to put it mildly) and challenging to the core. This book makes you wonder about the essential character of man and how individuals can rise up even in the darkest hour.
A great book February 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In 1912, after being defeated as a third-party candidate for president, Theodore Roosevelt was deeply depressed and out of a job. He conceived the notion of going to the Amazon jungle to help map an unknown frontier river. What happened there would test Roosevelt and the men of his expedition to their limits and even bring Teddy to the brink of suicide.
This is a great book that includes history, biography, natural science, and incredible human drama. I had heard of Roosevelt's adventures as an outdoorsman but had no idea that he had attempted such important contributions to science or that he had endured such an incredible ordeal. This book is full of compelling characters, such as Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and Candido Rondon, a brave and brilliant Brazilian explorer. I was amazed to learn so much about the rain forest and the beautiful but harsh environment, and the Indians that lived there and stalked every move the expedition made. All this, along with murder and pirahnas too.
The verdict: Read this book.
Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis and Clark
No bedtime reading this! February 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I generally don't read nonfiction as I can hardly stay awake when I do. But The River of Doubt was not consigned to my bedside stand as a sleeping pill equivalent. What an excellent mix of adventure, history, anthropology, geography, biology, and medicine, all so vivid I felt I was side by side with TR in a leaky canoe in the oppressive heat of the Amazon jungle. I'd have a supply of Malarone in hand, however, plus yards of mosquito netting. Stand aside Survivor, Teddy Roosevelt has been there, done that, a thousand times over.
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