“Boys in the Boat:” The History and Politics That Changed the World

Adolf Hitler sought to use the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin to convince the world’s people of the superiority of his political ideology and of the “Aryan” race. The success of some U.S. athletes, most notably sprinter Jesse Owens and the University of Washington crew – “the boys in the boat” – challenged Hitler’s carefully crafted narrative. Our expert panelists, Kevin Leonard, Sheila Webb, and Cornelius Partsch, will explore the relationships among politics, sports and popular culture in the US and the Third Reich.