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. After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Theodore 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... 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. -Back cover.

Originally published: New York : Broadway Books, c2005.1st ed.

Prologue -- Breaking away: Defeat; Opportunity; Preparation; On the open sea; Change of plans -- Into the wilderness: Beyond the frontier; Disarray and tragedy; Hard choices; Warnings from the dead -- Descent: Unknown; Pole and paddle, axe and machete; Living jungle; On the ink-black river; Twitching through the woods; Wild water: Danger afloat, danger ashore; Death in the rapids -- Iron cruelty: Attack; Wide belts; Hunger; Myth of "beneficent nature"; "I will stop here" -- Despair: Missing; Worst in a man; "He who kills must die"; Judgment; Cauldron -- Deliverance: Rubber men; Pair of flags -- Epilogue.