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Title: What is a Man? by Waller R. Newell ISBN: 0-06-039296-7 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (4 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Iron John Toned Down
Comment: This book's good point is that it tries to point out that men's lives are not defined by the stereotypes that one sees in popular culture. Unfortunately this is its only good point. The references to classic and Elizabethan literature are not helpful because we as a culture--at least in the United States, are trying to abolish the social structures whereby women are subordinate to men and that the man's role can only be provider and chief. We DO KNOW, despite what the editor would have us believe, that while we as biological animals have not changed very much, the social constructs that gave men priviledge and subordinated women have changed and continue to change. I think this book is pure nostalgia. The editor prefers to have society be more like it was; however, we know that as Thomas Hardy wrote: "You can never go home again." This is quite true of gender roles and societal norms. (Note that I do not refer to ethics or morals here.) I do not recommend this book very strongly. If you do read it, do so with a grain of salt and a critical eye for how things were then and now.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Start
Comment: This book is definitely on the right track. A corrective of this sort is sorely, sorely needed in our colleges and universities. The standard academic line these days, which is reflected in the godly status of such lesbian-feminist frauds as Judith Halberstam ("Female Masculinity") and Judith Butler ("Gender Trouble"), indicates the extent to which our universities have decided to institutionalize the insane policy of allowing such people to prey on young men and women at a vulnerable time in their lives, and to tell these young people (and their parents)that this is why they have gone to college. In fact, what our young men need, at any rate, is to have sensible, well-educated, happily married, family men help them to understand that a good man strives, eventually, to be a good husband and a good father, and that these are greatly fulfilling to a mature man. There are exceptions to this life of a mature man (of the Oscar Wilde variety that the predictably snide editorial reviewer so predictably brought up), but it is very important for all young men to see that masculinity is not just defined by the vulgar strutting of celebrity rappers or other mass-media performers, but rather by taking responsibility for your own actions, caring for the well-being of your family, and showing yourself to be more than just a slave to your sex-drive. The fact that men now so commonly abandon a faithful wife of 20 years for a younger woman is a sign of a problem quite in addition to the onslaught of the feminists (or is it another sign of the crisis that they have helped to bring on?). This latter problem is a problem of screwed-up priorities, screwed-up ideas of what a man's life is, and a screwed-up idea of what life has to offer. Newell's book may not change our society, but by insisting that a man define himself by according dignity to himself and the women in his life, by defining his masculinity by responsibility to others and self-accountability, he suggests a path I would surely rather see my own children follow. It's a book that a young man would greatly benefit from if he could just be convinced to turn off the TV or stereo long enough to read it.
Rating: 5
Summary: An encyclopedia of manly virtue and conduct
Comment: Every college freshman should be required to read this book in a course of the same name. Women too! Especially, the women! This is a highly sophisticated, scholarly, and thorough presentation of true masculinity. It contains excerpts from Greek and Roman mythology, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, Shakespeare, Plato, and other great works of world literature and philosophy. This is NOT an elaborate version of one of those popular feel good, fashion, or pop psychology publications with nonsense of the type one can buy at the grocery store: Esquire, GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, etc., etc. The studied and thoughtful selections from the Great Books alone make this book worth the price. It reminds one of just how little the world has really changed. We are the same basic men and women we were 2000 years ago. Our natures have not changed. We may think that we live in a world where everything is new under the sun. This book shows how false that assumption is. Author Waller Newell makes the past relevant for today. His selections demonstrate that true generosity, courage, good humor, compassion, virtue, and above all love, have not changed. As men and women we have been there before. Problems have new faces and different names, but at root they are the same ones we have always faced and which must be solved anew by each generation. Newell's book is a profound anthology of moral and political philosophy and solid practical advice. Newell concludes his book with his own brief essay. In many ways I think it is one of the best in the book. He sums up the basis for his choice of selections with the phrase "love perfected." It is an apt umbrella for this anthology. The bottom line is that being a man (and a woman) is about good character: decency, compassion, generosity, integrity, commitment, courage. Hardly a surprise one would think. However, in a world that so often advocates only the extremes of macho violence and effete sentimentality, Newell's book is a welcome antedote.
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Title: The Code of Man : Love Courage Pride Family Country by Waller Newell ISBN: 006008751X Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Throwaway Dads: The Myths and Barriers That Keep Men from Being the Fathers They Want to Be by Ross Parke, Armin Brott ISBN: 0395860415 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 25 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Quest for the Male Soul: In Search of Something More by Martin W. Pable ISBN: 0877935807 Publisher: Ave Maria Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: From Chivalry to Terrorism : War and the Changing Nature of Masculinity by LEO BRAUDY ISBN: 0679450351 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco ISBN: 0156001314 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 28 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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