Manhood in America / Edition 4

by Michael Kimmel

Overview

For 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: A Cultural History, Fourth Edition, author Michael Kimmel argues that it is time for men to rediscover their own evolution. Drawing on a myriad of sources, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190612535
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/26/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Michael Kimmel is Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. A leading researcher and writer on gender and men and masculinity, he is the author of numerous books and articles, including The Gendered Society, Sixth Edition (OUP, 2016), The Gendered Society Reader, Sixth Edition (with Amy Aronson, OUP, 2016), and Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men (2009).

Table of Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part I: THE MAKING OF THE SELF-MADE MAN IN AMERICA, 1776-1865
Chapter 1: The Birth of the Self-Made Man
Chapter 2: Born to Run: Self-Control and Fantasies of Escape

Part II: THE UNMAKING OF THE SELF-MADE MAN AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
Chapter 3: Men at Work: Captains of Industry, White Collars, and the Faceless Crowd
Chapter 4: Playing for Keeps: Masculinity as Recreation and the Re-Creation of Masculinity
Chapter 5: A Room of His Own: Socializing the New Man

Part III: THE NEW MAN IN A NEW CENTURY, 1920-1950
Chapter 6: Muscles, Money, and the M—F Test: Measuring Masculinity Between the Wars
Chapter 7: "Temporary About Myself": White-Collar Conformists and Suburban Playboys, 1945-1960

Part IV: THE CONTEMPORARY "CRISIS" OF MASCULINITY
Chapter 8: The Masculine Mystique
Chapter 9: Wimps, Whiners, and Weekend Warriors: The Contemporary Crisis of Masculinity and Beyond
Chapter 10: From Anxiety to Anger Since the 1990s: The "Self-Made Man" Becomes "Angry White Men"

Epilogue
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Manhood in America is the gold standard for a broad-ranging cultural history of masculinity. It is a must-read in the study of masculinities."—Lauren Weis, American University

"I love how the book is at once a study of masculinity and American culture. Manhood in America is an excellent resource for students who need historical and social grounding in order to make sense of the idea that gender, along with other human attributes of identity, are dependent on contextual definitions. It is a true wealth of information."—Joyce Janca-Aji, Coe College

"This is the most comprehensive critical history of American masculinity in print. It is essential reading for anyone seeking a solid grounding in the field."—Christopher E. Forth, University of Kansas

From the Publisher

In a startling, original study, Kimmel, a professor of sociology at the State University of New York, makes a persuasive case that manhood has been a constantly changing social construct in American culture. Once rooted in genteel land-ownership or in the pride of independent artisans, shopkeepers and farmers, manhood was transformed by the industrial revolution, which made American males, by the mid-19th century, insecure, mobile, competitive, chronically restive and seeking a sense of themselves as men through their economic success. Men attempted to prove their manliness through sports, business, bodybuilding, clothes, fraternal organizations, participation in two world wars and the Depression (``emasculating both at work and at home''). In 1936, Lewis Terman, inventor of the IQ test, introduced a sexist ``M-F scale'' that supposedly measured children's masculinity and femininity and their likelihood of ``successfully'' acquiring gender identity. Men today, observes Kimmel, spout angry antifeminist rhetoric in men's rights groups, or beat a defensive retreat via the men's movement's embrace of cosmic archetypes. Drawing on a wealth of material-advice manuals, union struggles, the symbolism of presidential campaigns, Tocqueville, Thoreau, contemporary films, novels and men's magazines-Kimmel's humane, pathbreaking study points the way toward a redefinition of manhood that combines strength with nurturing, personal accountability, compassion and egalitarianism. Photos. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Kimmel, 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 America. He examines how the manhood experience has not only defined American males but has also shaped the culture and livelihood of its members. Kimmel states the key driving force in men throughout history has been to prove their masculinity. He examines how this phenomenon has changed over time along with the masculine ideal and other transfigurations that must coexist with it. Holding up the model of the "self-made man" of American myth and legend for analysis, Kimmel describes the legend's birth prior to the Civil War and its lasting impact until the close of the 19th century. As the new millennium approaches, the author contemplates the contemporary crisis of masculinity. A core title for men's studies and gender studies collections alike.-Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Lib., Ind.

Library Journal