Manhood in America: A Cultural HistoryFor more than three decades, the women's movement and its scholars have exhaustively studied women's complex history, roles, and struggles. In Manhood in America, Second Edition, author Michael S. Kimmel--a leading authority in gender studies--argues that it is time for men to rediscover their own evolution. Drawing on a myriad of sources, including advice books, magazine columns, political pamphlets, and popular novels and films, he demonstrates that American men have been eternally frustrated by their efforts to keep up with constantly changing standards. Kimmel contends that men must follow the lead of the women's movement; it is only by mining their past for its best qualities and worst excesses that men will free themselves from the constraints of the masculine ideal. Condensed and revised in this second edition, Manhood in America features updated chapters and examples that extend its coverage through the Bush administration. Touching on issues of masculinity as they pertain to current events, the book discusses such timely topics as post-9/11 politics, "self-made" masculinities (including those of Internet entrepreneurs), presidential campaigns, and gender politics. It also covers contemporary debates about fatherlessness, the biology of male aggression, and pop psychologists like John Gray and Dr. Laura. Outlining the various ways in which manhood has been constructed and portrayed in America, this engaging history is ideal as a main text for courses on masculinity or as a supplementary text for courses in gender studies and cultural history. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 17
Page 114
For one thing , American men joined fraternal organizations . The turn of the century was “ the Golden Age of Fraternity , ” according to W. S. Harwood in 1897. By his count , over three hundred different fraternal orders boasted a ...
For one thing , American men joined fraternal organizations . The turn of the century was “ the Golden Age of Fraternity , ” according to W. S. Harwood in 1897. By his count , over three hundred different fraternal orders boasted a ...
Page 115
42 Some fraternal organizations that catered especially to working - class men provided death and sickness benefits and paid funeral costs in this era before life insurance , thus reinventing the craft guild's economic as well as social ...
42 Some fraternal organizations that catered especially to working - class men provided death and sickness benefits and paid funeral costs in this era before life insurance , thus reinventing the craft guild's economic as well as social ...
Page 116
The real purpose of fraternal orders , wrote suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage , was “ to set one sex against another . " 45 Some of them , unfortunately , also set one race against another . Several fraternal orders , such as the Order of ...
The real purpose of fraternal orders , wrote suffragist Matilda Joslyn Gage , was “ to set one sex against another . " 45 Some of them , unfortunately , also set one race against another . Several fraternal orders , such as the Order of ...
What people are saying - Write a review
MANHOOD IN AMERICA: A Cultural History
User Review - KirkusKimmel (Sociology/SUNY, Stony Brook) applies the methodology of feminist history to the experience of being male in America. Rejecting the idea that almost every history book is about the male ... Read full review
Manhood in America: a cultural history
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictKimmel, a noted men's studies authority, coeditor of Against the Tide (LJ 2/1/92), and editor of The Politics of Manhood, reviewed below, presents in his own words the first cultural history of men in ... Read full review
Contents
The Birth of the SelfMade Man | 11 |
SelfControl and Fantasies of Escape | 30 |
Captains of Industry White Collars and | 57 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American appeared argued Artisan became become believed body boys called celebrated century Christian cited City Civil claimed course cultural decades earlier economic efforts emotional equality example experience expressed father fear feel female feminism frontier gender George girls groups hero Heroic homosexuality increasingly industrial John labor less liberation lives look magazine male man's manhood manly masculinity meaning men's middle-class moral mother movement nature never observed offered organization parents percent perhaps physical play political popular problem prove race responsibility role seemed Self-Made sense sexual social society sons success things traditional transformed turn University Press virtue woman women workers workplace writes wrote York young