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The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

Candice Millard

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Dec 05, 2023 Cindy Leighton rated it really liked it

Shelves: latin-america, biography-autobiography-memoir, us-history

Certainly a riveting account of Teddy's insane journey through the Amazon to chart a "new" "undiscovered" river. It would be hard to find a more exciting, intense, compelling narrative about a adventure. Hard to imagine a former president imperiling his life so greatly, or even desiring to do so. Also hard to imagine how "old" he is described as being the entire trip, and then learning he was in his 50s at the time - younger than I am.

No doubt the men faced incredibly difficult times - losing b Certainly a riveting account of Teddy's insane journey through the Amazon to chart a "new" "undiscovered" river. It would be hard to find a more exciting, intense, compelling narrative about a adventure. Hard to imagine a former president imperiling his life so greatly, or even desiring to do so. Also hard to imagine how "old" he is described as being the entire trip, and then learning he was in his 50s at the time - younger than I am.

No doubt the men faced incredibly difficult times - losing boats, men, food. Facing uncountable rapids and waterfalls, infection, malaria, an inability to find food in the rain forest and so much true terror. However, the entire trip seems so much folly - privileged colonizers who just show up in South America to "discover" an uncharted (by westerners) river and go for a little jaunt. Their inability to anticipate that this would not just be a little jaunt points to some of their arrogance. They "hired" many local "camaradas" who did all the paddling, hunting, portaging of canoes and almost all of the work. Roosevelt and his men and the Brazilian leaders realize who is doing most of the work, and often (Roosevelt in particular) give their rations to the camaradas - how unselfish is this really as they are completely dependent on the strength of these men.

I understand we cannot really judge men a hundred years ago by the morals of today - so I still love Teddy. But Millard's portrayal of the Indians they came across in the jungle as "stone age peoples" and people who couldn't even build a boat is not as excusable. I understand the western "explorers" did not have the tools and education to see the people who had lived there for thousands of years, had successfully found food and shelter where the westerners could not, could navigate the forest, remain invisible - as fully human. But Millard does not get the same excuse. She is the one portraying them as "stone age" - there are no stone age people. All cultures evolve.

Overall though it is still an incredibly gripping read - and unimaginable that a former president (for starters, could be a former president in his 50s lol) would be eager, willing, and allowed to take on such a journey. Of course they weren’t “discovering” anything that wasn’t already well known to the people who had lived there for thousands of years. But the obstacles they faced on this trip for which they were ill-equipped were real indeed. Terrifying to think about a former president almost dying from infection while paddling/floating/ careening down a 1,000 mile river in the densest part of the Amazon.
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