The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

The River of Doubt by Candice Millard, 416 pages 

I picked this up not so much because I was interested in the subject but because I had read "The Destiny of the Republic" by this author, about James Garfield's assassination, and liked her writing style. I very much enjoyed this book as well. This tells of Roosevelt's decision, after not being re-elected as President in 1912, to go on an Amazon adventure. All his life, Roosevelt battled depression and setbacks by challenging himself mentally and physically. So to get his mind off his defeat, even at age 55, he chose to push himself and the men who joined them to the limits of their endurance.

Initially the trip was planned to be a bit more sedate, owing to the age of some of the men joining the expedition and the fact that a former President was on the trip. Upon arriving in Brazil, however, Roosevelt and his companions chose to forego the already not terribly safe trip they planned to instead embark upon The River of Doubt, which had been virtually completely uncharted and its endpoint unknown. Millard does a great job describing what a monumentally bad decision this was: they hadn't planned for or packed supplies for this type of trip, and they continued to make bad choices throughout the trip that would cost lives and impact the health of the men on the journey, including nearly killing Roosevelt himself.

I learned a lot about the many, many ways a person can die in the Amazon rain forest, as well as the tribes that lived there, the nature of the plants and animals that lived there, and how the River Basin was created millennia ago. I also enjoyed learning about the men who joined this expedition, including Roosevelt's son Kermit, and Candido Rondon, a fascinating man of his time who worked his way up from poverty to a military career installing telegraph lines, heading expeditions, and, most impressively, to championing fair treatment of the tribes that inhabited the Amazon River Basin. Millard does an excellent job describing the temperament of the men who undertook this dangerous journey and I found many of the characters as fascinating, if not more so, than Roosevelt himself. Well-written and engaging - I will read more by this great author!