A hundred listings of books of interest to the men’s movements. Along with capsule reviews by a team of reviewers. Plus a list of more than twenty related bibliographies

The Reviews:

Abbot, Franklin ed. Men and Intimacy: Personal Accounts Exploring the Dilemmas of Modern Male Sexuality The Crossing Press 1990

Anon. Unbecoming Men Times Change Press 1971 A men’s consciousness raising group writes about their consciousnesses, before and after being raised. Mostly it’s a confessional about how sorry they all are to have been such pigs, but there is the occasional heartfelt tidbit about masturbation and such.{DG}

Daniel Amneus, Ph.D The Garbage Generation, The Consequences of the Destruction of the Two-Parent Family and the Need to Stabilize It by Strengthening Its Weakest Link, the Father’s Role. 1991, Primrose Press. $12.95. The title pretty much says it all. An in-depth look at roots and issues of Matriarchy and Patriarchy similar to the theme explored by George Gilder. Available from Men’s Defense Assn.

Astrachan, Anthony How Men Feel: Their response to women’s demands for equality and power Anchor Press/Doubleday 1986 This seems to be a feminist/marxist approach to men and how they have responded to the feminist movement and the recent changes in gender roles. Chapter headings include “How men feel about women in `a man’s job'” and “The Men’s Movement.” The author seems somewhat impatient with people who don’t share his paradigm. {DG}

August, Eugene R. MEN’S STUDIES: A Selected and Annotated Interdisciplinary Bibliography, Libraries Unlimited, Inc. (Littleton, Colorado) 1985 (2nd Edition, 1994) P.O. Box 263 Littleton, CO 80160-0263.

This book includes some 575+ listings of books on men’s issues — each one described in detail.

There is a list of chapter headings for the first edition

There is a plug for the second edition. {DG}

Baumli, Francis ed. Men Freeing Men: Exploding the myth of the traditional male New Atlantis Press 1985 (may now be carried by Bioenergetics Press) A compilation of articles by men’s rights authors such as Dan Logan, Herb Goldberg, Roy Schenk, Robert Sides, Richard Haddad, Jed Diamond, Rich Doyle, Fred Hayward, John Gordon and Francis Baumli. It also includes the oft-cited hereabouts paper on husband battering by Dr. Steinmetz . There are sections on sexuality, gay & straight relationships, “finding our fathers,” parenting, divorce issues, violence, the draft, health issues, feminism, and the men’s movement. I really enjoy this book, but some may find the articles a bit shallow. Some are excerpts that feel more like soundbites than analysis. {DG}

Beard, Henry and Cerf, Christopher The Official Sexually Correct Dictionary and Dating Guide, published by Villard Books (a division of Random House) c 1995. ISBN # is 0-679-75641-8. They have an extract.

Bell, Tony and Diener, Sam Pro-Feminism: Men’s Nonviolent Approach to Feminism Part of the War Resisters League Packet.

Berry, Patricia ed. Fathers and Mothers Spring Publications, 1990 An excellent collection of essays on the subject of mothers and fathers, written by a collection of writers: James Hillman, Robert Bly, August Vitale, Marion Woodman, Patricia Berry, Mary Watkins, Jackie Schectman, Ursula K. LeGuin, Erich Neumann and C. G. Jung.{EM}

Biddulph, Stephen , Manhood, Finch Press, 1994. 216 pages, AUS$19.95

Blankenhorn, David Fatherless America – Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem , ISDN 0-465-01483-6

Bly, Robert Iron John Addison-Wesley 1990 Whatever you read about the men’s movement these days has some sort of reference to this book and this author. Considered by many to be the father of the “mythopoetic” men’s movement, Bly is an established American poet who has become interested in the male condition. This book is an analysis through poetry, symbols, cultural initiations, and myths (particularly the Grimms Brothers fairy tale which gives this book it’s title). In a nutshell, Bly believes that masculinity is in crisis because men today have no connection to the “wild man.” The traditional man was destructive, but today’s sensitive “soft man” isn’t doing himself any favors either. This book has been on the best-seller list forever, so I guess I shouldn’t be too harsh, but I didn’t get much out of it. He is very vague both in his analysis of the problem and his prescription for a solution and tends to go off into the Twilight Zone with his symbols.{DG}

There is an article about Bly.

Bolen, Jean Shinoda Gods in Everyman – A New Psychology of Men’s Lives and Loves Harper & Row, 1989. Heavy on father/son relationships as seen through the metaphor of Greek myth. Very accessible, not “academic.” {JR}

Brenton, Myron The American Male Fawcett 1966 Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to 1966. It’s amazing that anything was being written about men’s issues in 1966, much less a book like this which argues in it’s opening pages that “to the extent that the plight of men is ignored, that of women tends to seem less real.” He talks about fatherhood, the “masculinity trap,” power, “The Dagwood Bumstead Syndrome,” sexuality, and in the final chapter, “How to be male, though equal.” This book, which predates “The Male Machine” by almost a decade, has great historical value but also good insights for its time.{DG}

Brod, Harry The Making of Masculinities: The New Men’s Studies Allen & Unwin 1987 This book is a collection of 14 scholarly essays & is intended to be a Men’s Studies text. In the thumbnail biographies of the contributors a program and an organization are cited: Program for Study of Women & Men in Society at the University of Southern California and the Southern Institute of Gender Studies.

I wish I could say this was the book we’ve all been waiting for; the one that would start making sense of men’s lives … but it’s not. It is dry and academic. If this were an anthropology text, I would say the theory is interesting but the fieldwork is inadequate. The 14 authors rely too much on the feminist account of men’s experience, and write about men with which they are are out of sympathy. And there’s far too little analysis of men’s relations with women, though surely men’s studies would have to spend as much time on this as women’s studies.

Well, perhaps I am being too hard on this book. There are a few essays in the book that, I felt, hit the mark. And, after all, the beginning of any field of study is always tentative. {RF}

Brott, Armin A. & Ash, Jennifer, The Expectant Father

We have a review.

Charnofsky, Stan , When Women Leave Men (How Men Feel How Men Heal) ISBN#1-880032-01-5 Dr. Charnofsky’s book basically takes you through the process of how men hurt and recover from divorces. You may have to get this from a library–sort of difficult to get. He has a great list of roadsigns to watch out for. For women a good book is Sudden Endings by Madelyn Bennett—-a very nice person incidentally. I don’t happen to have the isbn on this one either {DH}

Chesler, Phyllis About Men Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1978 I haven’t read this one, but it seems to be a Jungian analysis of the male condition based on interviews and such. Sections are “Male Images: Reflections of Eden,” “Male Realities: Autobiographical Portraits,” and “An Essay About Men.” Chesler is currently working on a sympathetic portrait of a female serial killer who killed a number of men in Florida, so that may give you some idea as to her leanings.{DG}

Colman, Arthur and Libby The Father: mythology and changing roles Chiron Publications, 1988 Opens with a discussion of the various images of the father, including the sky father, the earth father, father the creator, the royal father, and the dyadic father, a model which the Colmans are themselves exploring. Their discussion includes the strengths and weaknesses of each kind of father. Of particular interest to me was a minor but recurring discussion in the book: how men experience their (not their spouse’s) pregnancy.{EM}

Corneau, Guy Absent Fathers, Lost Sons – The Search For Masculine Identity Shambala Publications, 1991. Corneau opens the book (in the introduction) with an observation that “the frequent absence of the father or of masculine behavior for young male children ‘seems to explain certain behavioral difficulties connected with men’s affirmation of their sexual identity.'” After a brief discussion of the significance of the father’s absence, he delves deeply into how the father’s absence creates lost sons.{EM}

Excellent book dealing with the problems faced by boys who have no father in their lives. I place this right up there near Miedzian’s book. {JR} Ellis Cose A Man’s World Harper-Collins, 1995 ISBN 0-06-017206-1. It passes along various statistics about marital violence in a chapter called “Battered Men, Bitter Truths”; blurb.

David, Deborah S. and Brannon, Robert eds. The Forty-Nine Percent Majority: The Male Sex Role Addison-Wesley 1976 A feminist men’s movement companion to Men Freeing Men, this is a collection of essays from feminists Marc Feigen Fasteau, Warren Farrell (in his feminist days), Myron Brenton, Kate Millett, Joseph Pleck, Jack Sawyer and others. This is pretty good stuff, and they treat their topic seriously. It’s a bit too heavy on the “repent, oppressor” bit for my tastes, but there’s a good amount of scholarship here.{DG}

The Diagram Group , Man’s Body: An owner’s manual Bantam 1976-1983-? “The male body is usually a mystery to its owner. The purpose of this book is to unravel some of that mystery…” This book displays through graphs, charts, illustrations, etc. all sorts of things about the male body and about men’s bodies as a population. If you want to know something, from ethnic variations in body size to life expectancy to positions for intercourse to male inherited disorders to digestion and absorption to drugs and drug abuse to penis variations, it’s in here.{DG}

Diamond, Jed Inside Out: Becoming my own man Fifth Wave Press 1983 A collection of autobiographical essays dealing with how the author came to grips with certain parts of his masculinity and other stuff. Sorry to be vague but I didn’t read much of it. It’s got a bit of a sappy new-age “I’m OK; You’re OK” tone to it that turned me off. Some of it is really honest and insightful, though. Herb Goldberg says “for me this is the best kind of `Men’s Liberation’ book — a personal, honest, expressive account of the inner life of a man in the process of search and change.”{DG}

Doyle, James A. The Male Experience Wm. C. Brown 1983 The only men’s studies textbook that I’m aware of. Disturbingly anti-male in parts, it does however cover a lot of ground and is useful for its citations at least. Covers history, biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, misogyny, success, aggression, sexuality, independence, power, homosexuality, “men of color,” and perspectives on the future.{DG}

Doyle, Richard F. The Men’s Manifesto, A commonsense approach to gender issues and politics. The men’s movement examined. Poor Richard’s Press, 1992, $6.00. A short (39 page), but very comprehensive booklet about the history of the men’s (and women’s) movement for the last 25 years.

Available from Men’s Defense Assn.

Doyle, R .F. The Rape of the Male Poor Richards Press 1976 A very angry book from a male victim of the divorce process. The front cover depicts the crucifixion, so you can guess this guy feels screwed over. Mostly it is an analysis of how men get blasted in divorce, but he covers a few other topics as well. He speaks a good line against sex discrimination, but when he gets angry enough you can see the male chauvinist pig under the surface. “Women have an elemental need for masculine authority,” he writes, in spite of the fact that his book was written to “in some way inhibit the travesties of sex prejudice.” He started the Men’s Rights Association in 1973 but I don’t know if it’s still around. If Andrea Dworkin had testicles, she’d hang around with these guys.{DG}

Richard Doyle is still very active. As for him being a male chauvinist pig … well, he was proud when N.O.W. voted him MCP of the year. We have an extract on the history of the men’s movement.

Dubbert, Joe L. A Man’s Place: Masculinity in transition Prentice-Hall 1979 “A Man’s Place… traces the development of the masculine image from 1830 to the present. Joe L. Dubbert explores the constantly changing sexual and emotional influences on men by which society determines, validates, and judges their masculinity. He considers the effect America’s wars, the Depression, and the rise of sports have had on the male roles and traces the influences of such heroic models as Daniel Boone, Teddy Roosevelt, and Jack Armstrong…”

Easler, Bryan Fathering the Unthinkable: Masculinity, Scientists and the Nuclear Arms Race Schocken Press 1987

Ehrenreich, Barbara The Hearts of Men: American dreams and the flight from commitment Anchor 1983 I really enjoyed this book. It is the best history of the men’s movement I’ve read. Ehrenreich, who I believe is a socialist/feminist true believer, traces men’s changes over the last half-century with sympathy and without the rabid hostility many feminist writers resort to when writing about the icky sex. She traces the men’s movement back to psychotherapy, the Playboy ethic and beatniks; most historians don’t go back much further than Fasteau’s “The Male Machine” in 1975. Men, according to Ehrenreich, have been slowly been rebelling against the breadwinner/monogamy ethic for quite some time now, and what we call the “men’s movement” today is just another expression of this. Definitely worth the read.{DG}

Farrell, Warren The Liberated Man Bantam 1974 This is what Warren Farrell sounded like back when Gloria Steinem would still speak to him. Yes, Virginia, Farrell was a feminist. Here he talks about women’s liberation and how it can help men, how masculinity is defined, and how to go about setting up men’s consciousness-raising groups.{DG}

Farrell, Warren Why Men Are the Way They Are McGraw- Hill 1986 And this is what Warren Farrell sounds like today. Much more skeptical of feminism, much more sympathetic to men. He spends a lot of time analyzing heterosexual courting and relationships. A lot of the male role, he says, is men acting like what they think women want them to be. This book is probably the most popular among the men’s rights cadre on soc.men. I thought Farrell was right on the money a whole lot. I’d recommend this book as a starter for anyone wanting to learn more about the men’s rights movement.{DG}

Specifically see Part 4, “The New Sexism”, as it relates to sexual stereotypes and the resulting gender bias in custody decisions.{JR}

Farrell, Warren The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1993. This book is the FAQ for the USENET group alt.mens-rights. As the title suggests, its function is myth-busting. Farrell provides full documentation for all his sources, and does a thorough revision of the whole panoply of popular feminist myths on male dominance. The picture that emerges is of a social system in which women, not men, are the special beneficiaries in every situation where there is any possibility of establishing institutional gender bias. {JG}

Fasteau, Marc Feigen The Male Machine Dell 1975 Considered by many to be the men’s version of The Feminine Mystique. In an introduction, Gloria Steinem writes: “This book is a complement to the feminist revolution, yet it is one no woman could write. It is the revolution’s other half. True, no group of people gives up power voluntarily, and therefore women can never relax efforts to overthrow the structures of patriarchal power. But there will be male allies like this one; men who also want a world in which we can shed the crippling stereotypes of sex or race, and become the unique individuals we were born to be.”{DG}

Fossum, Merle Catching Fire: Men Coming Alive in Recovery Harper/Hazelton, 1989 An interesting view of the male recovery process, in which the author borrows heavily from the AA twelve-step program. Chapter topics include: “Finding Your Inner Warrior,” “Masculine Spirituality,” “Getting to Know Your Family System,” and “Male Sexuality.”{EM}

Garfinkle, Perry In a Man’s World — Father, Son, Brother, Friend and Other Roles Men Play Mentor, 1985

Gilder, George. Sexual Suicide Bantam 1973. 338pp Gilder offers one of the best critiques of feminism, circa the early 70’s. This book lays the groundwork for his later work, “Men and Marriage;” in both books his focus is on the arrangements and sexual roles promoted by society. Like many feminists, Gilder sees these roles as being somewhat arbitrary, but Gilder sees the traditional American sex roles as being crucial to reducing male violence, providing a stable environment for children and underpinning civil society. Highly recommended. {DRT}

Gilmore, David D. Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity Yale U. Press. 1990 Anthropologist David Gilmore noticed something interesting when doing field study in Spain: unlike American men, Spanish men knew whether or not they were men, and knew what it meant to be a man. His curiosity aroused, Gilmore undertook to take a pan-cultural look at manhood, looking for common threads, a universal image of manhood. In his conclusions, he argues that men do nurture, but nurture significantly differently than do women, and in ways which we have come not to see as nurturing. Manhood, he says, must be proven, and must be proven publicly; proof of one’s manhood must be repeated: manhood does not sustain itself by itself. And men do not conform to the role which they must play, and — universally — both men and women pressure men into conforming to the ideology of manhood. The findings of Gilmore’s book present men’s egos not as being fragile (as women would have us believe), but rather show men as living in a precarious place.{EM}

Gingold, Alfred Fire In The John: The Manly Man In The Age Of Sissification, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1991. pp160. $6.50 Jim Ducker has an extended review of this satire.

Goldberg, Herb The Hazards of Being Male Signet 1976 This is Why Men Are the Way They Are a decade earlier. This book introduced me to the men’s movement and it retains a fond place in my heart. “Today millions of men are killing themselves by being `men.’ You can save yourself from being one of them by understanding the heavy price men pay for the myth of masculine `privilege’ and power.”{DG}

Goldberg, Herb The New Male Signet 1980 This continues the work in The Hazards of Being Male, less apologetic, more angry, as revealed by chapter headings like “The Actor and the Reactor: or, Why She Can Label Him Exploiter, Oppressor and Chauvinist Pig,” “Who is the Victim? Who is the Oppressor?,” and “The Feminist Movement Can Save Your Life.”{DG}

Goldberg, Herb The Inner Male Signet 1987 This book concentrates more on heterosexual relationships and how men can avoid common pitfalls associated with them (“Earth Mothers in Disguise,” etc.). {DG}

Goldberg, Steven The Inevitability of Patriarchy Maurice Temple Smith LTD. 1977 (Open Court 1992) The first book to note the extremely Politically Incorrect fact that all human societies, without exception, display male dominance in terms of formal leadership, all associate personal achievement with men, and all expect men to be the dominant member in couples. Feminist writings contain many claimed exceptions, but all of them collapse upon close examination. Feminists have been furious with this book for over 20 years, but even Margaret Mead agreed with Goldberg that human patriarchy is universal. Goldberg develops the argument that no purely social explanation can possibly explain this, and that human biology renders male dominance both natural and inevitable. {RS}

There is also an exchange of letters between Dr. Goldberg and one of his critics, concerning the points from this book.

Goldberg, Steven When Wish Replaces Thought (Prometheus Books 1992, 1 800 421 0351)

Goldberg, Steven , Why Men Rule(Open Court Books, Chicago, 1993, 1 800 435 6850) The publisher insisted on this inflammatory title for the mostly re-written and updated re-release of Goldberg’s Inevitability of Patriarchy. Much of the pro-feminist railing against so-called “biological determinism” of the past 20 years has been an attempt to refute Goldberg, and it is extremely revealing that they have been unable to do so without misrepresenting his arguments. Here Prof. Goldberg replies to his Marxist/feminist critics, showing why biological factors are extremely likely to be the cause of the universality of human patriarchy, and why the purely environmentalist explanations fall short. {RS}

Dr Goldberg has responded to his critics.

Gordon, John The Myth of the Monstrous Male Playboy Press 1982 This is really a book about feminism’s often prudish attitudes toward sexuality, particularly male sexuality. The writing is excellent, the ironies vivid, and the documentation is all there. Except for the fact that the book doesn’t talk about men except to rebut feminist fables about men, it’s a great men’s issues book. As it is, it’s a great read.{DG}

We have a longer review.

Greenberg, Martin The Birth of a Father Avon Books, 1985. A personal account of the author’s experience in bonding with his son after the birth and in the following few years.{JR}

Groner, Jonathan Hilary’s Trial: The Elizabeth Morgan Case Simon & Schuster This is an analysis of America’s most famous case involving [sexual abuse] accusations against a father. Elizabeth Morgan became a feminist hero when she illegally hid her daughter because her flimsy accusations were unable to block her ex-husband from seeing his daughter. Congress, upset that she was being punished simply for flaunting the law, passed a new law in her behalf. Morgan, her credibility torn to shreds by a series of revelations, succeeded in completely severing the father’s relationship when a court ruled that it was simply too late to do anything about it. What makes the book especially powerful is that it is written by a journalist who had been partial to Morgan at the start of his investigation.{FH} This book is fairly exhaustive, and not just a little exhausting! It has a fairly strict chronological format, and dryly explains how the custody battle proceeded week by week. It would be hard to read this book and come away believing Morgan’s accusations, but I still think the most damning document against Elizabeth Morgan is her own book “Custody” written shortly before she started the sexual abuse allegations.{DG}

Hart, Mickey Drumming at the Edge of Magic HarperSanFrancisco, 1990 Drummer for the Grateful Dead, Hart’s father was a rudimental drummer (and he explains what that is!), which is where Hart acquired his love of drumming. He has devoted his lifetime to researching drums and drumming, and this book is an outgrowth of that search. It is also a bit of an autobiography, chronicaling his life with the Grateful Dead. It is also (to me) a book about a man’s search for his father, since his father appears in the book in odd places.{EM}

Hunter, Mic Abused Boys: The Neglected Victims of Sexual Abuse

Julty, Sam Men’s Bodies; Men’s Selves Delta 1979 Have you seen Our Bodies Ourselves? If so, you know the basic idea. This book covers a whole lot of ground in a very respectable way. Give one to your son for his birthday.{DG}

Kammer, Jack Good Will Toward Men, St Martin’s Press, 1994. $US 21, hardbound, 232pp. ISBN 0-312-10471-5 Interview with 22 pro-male women, mostly feminists. Includes Cathy Young, the perils of the victim mentality Karen DeCrow trying to end the battle between the sexes Barbara Dority, anti-censorship feminist; “pornography” Ruth Shalit, a rape protest run amok Rikki Klieman, false accusations of rape Carol Iannone, the politics of feminist scholarship and many other important topics. Highly recommended {DRT}

Kaye, Harvey E. Male Survival: Masculinity without Myth Grosset & Dunlap 1974 I haven’t read this one. It may be great, but the stereotypes in the chapter on homosexuality turned me off… Subjects include “The Male in the Masculinity Maze,” “The Sex Life of a Penis,” “The Homosexual `Alternative’,” and “From Adam’s Rib to Women’s Lib.”{DG}

Keen, Sam Fire in the Belly – On Being A Man Bantam, 1991. A very good book (IMO) whose main theme is the idolization of WOMAN to an unreal, mythological figure. The term WOMAN is used for the myth, woman for the actuality in the book. One sore point with me was the author’s willingness to buy into the `men’s violence against women’ argument, but the main thrust of the book was very positive, and stressed the need for men to `figure out where they were going’ as a top priority, and `worry about who they were going with’ after they had figured out the first question.{BV}

Another MUST read if you’re interested in the link between a healthy male psychology and the presence of the father.{JR}

Ron Boyer has an extended review.

Keyes, Ralph (ed) Sons on Fathers: A Book of Men’s Writing NY: Harper Perennial, 1992. ISBN 0-06-092413-6. 315 pp. $12.00 A very strong book recommendation. It’s a compilations of writings by various authors about their fathers. Portrayals are positive, negative, mostly mixed, all thoughtful and/or thought-provoking. A real winner.

There are 78 authors; among the ones known to me were: Robert Bly, Jimmy Carter, John Cheever, James Dickey, Nicholas Gage, Joel Grey, Lewis Grizzard, Lance Morrow, Bill Moyers, Dean Pitchford, and Theodore Roethke. But some of the better pieces were from ones I’m not familiar with. Includes stories and poems. Guaranteed to leave a lump in your throat at some point–if you’re human. [- Warren Gray WFGRAY00]

Kimbrell, Andrew, The Masculine Mystique, The Politics of Masculinity. See the review.

Kimmel, Michael S. & Mosmiller, Thomas E, Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the U.S., 1776-1990, edited by (Beacon, 1992)

Kipnis, Aaron, Knights Without Armor, (ISBN #0-87477-704-6), 1991 We have a review.

Klein, Edward and Erickson, Don eds. About Men Pocket Books 1988 A collection of essays from the About Men column in the New York Times by folks like Isaac Asimov, William F. Buckley Jr., and John Kenneth Galbraith. Several essays each on family, love & marriage, friendship, work, play, war, aging, and the meaning of manhood.{DG}

Langley, Roger and Levy, Richard C. Wife Beating: The Silent Crisis Pocket Books 1977 Unexceptional, from a men’s issues point of view, except for chapter 11, Battered Men, which does an excellent job of summarizing the literature on husband battering up to 1977.{DG}

Lee, John , The Flying Boy – Healing the Wounded Man, 1987, Health Communications, Inc, Deerfield Beach, FL, 110pp, $7.95 paperbound. ISBN 1-55874-006-6 John Lee had an alcoholic, abandoning father. His take on masculinity issues focuses on men who are in recovery from co-dependent relationships caused by family-of-origin dysfunction, particularly from addict fathers. His approach is therapeutic and he draws on mythopoetic sources to explain these familial wounds. The central image of the book is the “Flying Boy” who rejects his own body – his masculinity – and overvalues the feminine. The book is an intensely personal account. Lee handles these issues well but narrowly. He doesn’t even nod towards any of the political, biological or sociological factors which make contemporary masculinity such a complex issue. {DRT}

Lee, John The Flying Boy, Book II – The Journey Continues Health Communications, Inc., 1990. Ostensibly a “recovery” book (which Lee deals with extensively in his writings and other work), but if you read far enough, the connection to the “absent father” and resulting lifelong problems for boys-become-men becomes clear.{JR}

Lee, John At My Father’s Wedding – Reclaiming Our True Masculinity Bantam Books, 1991. Excellent book, selected by the Book of the Month Club. Lee is also the founder of the Austin Men’s Center and publisher of MAN! magazine.{JR}

Levinson, Daniel J. The Seasons of a Man’s Life Ballantine 1978 “Our primary aim is to create a developmental perspective on adulthood in men. We want to set forth a systematic conception of the entire life cycle, while paying primary attention to the major seasons of adulthood.”

Lew, Mike VICTIMS NO LONGER: Men Recovering from Incest and Other Sexual Child Abuse, Harper and Row, l988

Lyndon, Neil No More Sex War – The Failures of Feminism, Mandarin Paperbacks, London 1992. An excellent polemic against the radfem political agenda. Lyndon probes the evolution of radical feminism from the orthodox Marxist creed and pokes around with dexterity into the cultural mycelium which nourishes the poison- ous ideology. He grasps the central importance of the ‘reproductive rights’ battleground and highlights the dangers of the nascent bureaucracies hellbent on controlling the process of making babies. The analysis is good and in places excellent (e.g. in assessing the liberating effect of the Pill in the sixties, which in Lyndon’s view changed everything).

Unfortunately, the argument collapses in the last chapter in which Lyndon lectures sternly against any concerted political action and indeed pledges continued adherence to the image of a sensitive, house-broken mate resigned to the inferior status assigned to him by the Women’s Directorate. Evidently, he has a few steps yet to make to complete his self-image of a post-sensitive man. {JS}

Harry N . MacLean Once Upon A Time Dell paperback at $5.99, reprinted from a HarperCollins hardcover. ISBN 0-440-21716-4. The afterword may be only in the Dell edition. I’m holding the first paperback printing, dated August 1994.

Mailer, Norman The Prisoner of Sex Signet 1971 Interesting stuff. Mailer talks about the formation of his sexuality, his hobnobbing with folks like Gloria Steinem (who asked Mailer to run for mayor of New York, would you believe it?), about feminist criticism of literature (which he doesn’t care much for. He spends a great amount of time rebutting Kate Millet’s stuff — quoting her at such a great length that if his book were a usenet followup, he’d be accused of wasting bandwidth.), etc. Worth a look. He uses words like “gymkhana,” and “puerperal,” so keep your dictionaries handy.{DG}

McDowell, Charles P. False Allegation Behavior Science Unit of the FBI Academy, Quantico, VA 22134. Published in 1985. Perhaps the most comprehensive study of false rape allegation. The study concludes that 27 percent of all rape charges are false. McDowell uses strict criteria to determine falsity. He later confirmed the figures by checking with several police departments.

Messner, M . & Sabo, D. Sport, Men and the Gender Order: Critical Feminist Perspectives. Human Kinetics Press 1990 Explores the role of male socialization in promoting violence.

Miedzian, Myriam Boys Will Be Boys — Breaking the Link Between Masculinity and Violence. Doubleday, 1991. I put this first on [my] list because I consider it to be probably the most important book here. It focuses on the reasons behind, and proposes solutions for, male violence, BUT is **loaded** with references to the connections between that violence and **lack of fathering**. See especially Chapter 4, “Where Have All the Fathers Gone?”, and Chapter 5, “‘You Can’t Trust Men With Kids’ and Other Objections Answered”, which shows that children raised by their fathers actually do _better_ on the Yale Development Schedule than those from traditional (mother and father, or mother only) families. (Sorry, Moms!) {JR}

Miller, Stuart Men and Friendship, Gateway Books 1983 “Miller examines the sorry state of friendship between men today, most of them busy with marriage and careers. He shows that most men have close friendships in youth but lose them later. Though many would like an adult version of the old comradeship and intimacy, social conditions make real friendship hard to come by.”

Highly recommended – DRT.

Moore, Robert and Gillette, Douglas The King Within – Accession the King in Male Psyche, Avon Books, N.Y. 1992 M & G’s book on the topology of male psyche is interesting and readable. And in at least two respects the duo is much more credible than Robert Bly’s attempt to define the essence of being male. First, they proceed without Bly’s obsessive ‘awareness’ about how women feel about the way men think. This gives the writing a proper focus. But there is a larger difference. Susan Faludi can piss Iron John off (and brag about it) because the hairy wild man lacks the King’s essential qualities: substance and poise. These come from man’s relation to God, i.e., to the transcendental dimension of his existence. The King reflects man’s essential selflesness; his reaching to God in strife for truth and perfection. My guess is that most men can live with that. …{JS}

Monick, Eugene Phallos: sacred image of the masculine Inner City Books, 1987 In this book, Monick explores the notion of Phallos as the root of masculinity. He discusses the archetypal Phallos, archetypal images of Phallos, and the shadow side of Phallos. It’s a short book, and Monick’s ideas are anything but conventional.{EM}

Monick, Eugene Castration and Male Rage Inner City Books, 1991 In this book, Monick explores the issue of male castration: its origins, its nature, and recovery from it. What Monick calls “castration” may be likened to the archetypal psychological term “puer,” or to Robert Bly’s “passive male naivete,” or to Kiley’s “Peter Pan,” or John Lee’s “flying boy.” All these terms refer to the same phenomenon: the man who does not know what he wants, who has been emasculated, who has no backbone. Again, Monick’s ideas are anything but conventional.{EM}

Montagu, Ashley The Natural Superiority of Women, Collier Books, N.Y. 1974 This is a very important book. In many ways it was in the writing of this well known anthropologist that the classical liberal case for social equality between genders has crossed the Rubicon to inanity. ‘I should have not written this book’, forswears the author, ‘had I thought there was any danger that women would adopt superior airs and deal with men as their inferiors’. The book attempts to prove that women, collectively, possess biological qualities that better assure the survival of the species.

It is a convoluted but a hugely flawed argument. Even we accept the premise that quantitatively women are kinder than men and their social skills engend- er higher survival rates of the human species we will not avoid the problem of populations overrunning their resources on a small planet. So it may well be that women are killing us with kindness. Nonetheless, the idea of adducing survival (de)merit points to genders has caught fire and the nincompoop parallel between human males and ‘dinosaurs'(both sexes) which Montagu introduced here to peddle his superior attitudes to women soon became a feminist byword.{JS}

Moore, Robert & Gillette, Douglas King Warrior Magician Lover Harper Collins, 1990 Jungian psychologist Robert Moore and mythologist Douglas Gillette teamed up to produce one of the most important books to emerge in the field of men’s studies. They discuss at length the four archetypes named in the book’s title. In their discussion of these archetypes, they discuss the difference between “boy psychology” and “man psychology.” The book has received criticism from readers who argue that we are composed of more than the four archetypes that Moore and Gillette say form our being. But as a seminal work, it is significant.{EM}

Nichols, Jack Men’s Liberation: A new definition of masculinity Penguin 1975 All about roles, feeling, intuition, competition, violence, dominance, women, playfulness, intellect, etc. An androgyny-promoting, very ambitious book. I haven’t read it, though, so can’t give a real informed review. It “proposes a new definition of masculinity… freedom from destructive competition, from the fear of being called `effeminate,’ from the terror of sexual failure, from the nervousness that inhibits male friendship — from all the cultural straitjackets and mental stereotypes that warm men’s attitudes and behavior.” {DG}

Osherson, Samuel Finding Our Fathers: The unfinished business of manhood The Free Press 1986 If you want to know what the drum-beating men’s movement types are talking about when they say men need to heal the “father wound,” this is the book to read. This book isn’t overtly mythopoetic, but will appeal to men in every branch of the men’s movement. It discusses the psychological effects of fatherhood and “sonhood,” and the relationship between fathers and sons.{DG}

Osherson, Samuel Wrestling with Love Fawcett Columbine (div of Ballentine Books) 1992, 372 pp, $20, hardcover. ISBN 0-449-90550-0. A well-written examination of men’s difficulties with intimate communication. The work is aimed at psychologists working with male clients, but I found it very accessible to a lay audience. Men often feel shame over feelings of weakness or dependency. Ohserson’s best material here is his analysis of how this shame interferes with intimacy. He also probes the extent to which masculine anger is a cover for shameful feelings. Highly recommended. {DRT}

Pietropinto, Anthony and Simenauer, Jacqueline Beyond the Male Myth: What women want to know about men’s sexuality Times Books 1977 An explanation of the results of a survey of 4,000 American men about their sexuality and attitudes towards sexuality. There are about 90 pages of statistics and stuff in the back for folks who want to do their own analysis of the results. The authors do plenty of analysis, though, none of which, unfortunately, I have read. Someone else want to write this review for me?{DG}

Pleck, Joseph H. and Sawyer, Jack Men and Masculinity Spectrum 1974 A collection of essays by folks like Marc Fasteau, Gloria Steinem, and Jack Sawyer on the male condition. Chapter headings are: “Growing Up Male,” “Men and Women,” “Men and Children,” “Men and Men,” “Men and Work,” “Men and Society,” and “Men’s Liberation.”{DG}

Pleck, Joseph H. The Myth of Masculinity The MIT Press 1981 An academic criticism of the Male Sex Role Identity (MSRI) paradigm, “a set of ideas about sex roles, especially the male role, that has dominated the academic social sciences since the 1930s and more generally has shaped our culture’s view of the male role.” Pleck rejects the MSRI in favor of a Sex Role Strain (SRS) paradigm. You like this sort of thing; you’ll like this.{DG}

Raphael, Ray The Men from the Boys — Rites of Passage in Male America, 1988, University of Nebraska Press, 228 pp, $8.95, paperbound. ISBN 0-8032-8937-5 A sociological analysis of male rites of passage for white, middle-class Americans. Raphael mixes first person accounts with sociological comments and comparisons to primitive societies. Raphael claims a difference between our rites and those of pre-agricultural societies: those mens’ rites were passages that nearly everyone passed. But many men fail the initiations which we set out for men today. My main disappointment in the work is that the only standard of comparison which Raphael offers is to the most primitive societies. Many of the ancient initiation rites were dropped with the coming of agriculture. Societies have been struggling with masculine initiation through thousands of years of higher civilization. The only alternatives Raphael considers are those of hunter/gatherers and our present. But his treatment of the psychological drives behind the initiation rite are interesting. Recommended. {DRT} See also this extended review.

Robinson, Bryan E. and Barret, Robert L. The Developing Father The Guilford Press 1986 A textbook about fatherhood, including discussion of theoretical issues, preparation for fatherhood, changing roles of fathers, fathering across the life span, single and divorced fathers, stepfathers, gay fathers, teenage fathers, and fathers of disabled children. If it has to do with dads, it’s in this book.{DG}

Shapiro, Jerrold Lee The measure of a man: becoming the father you wish your father had been. Delacorte Press, New York (1993). The first three chapters are quite general and give an excellent (and sympathetic) history of the women’s movement clearly documenting both the good and bad sides of feminism. Dr. Shapiro gives very good documentation of the current anti male trends. He also shows how many of the problems men see in feminist ideas are both real problems (for men) but developed from limitations of the female perspective not from any deliberate malice. Women alone can’t create a fair concept of gender equality that properly takes into account men’s view of the world, because they view the world differently. I think the author defines an excellent framework for men to think about gender issues in a positive way. {Chris Eliot}

Sonkin, Daniel Jay, WOUNDED BOYS, HEROIC MEN: A Man’s Guide to Recovering from Child Abuse, Longmeadow Press, l992

Spiegel, Lawrence D. A Question of Innocence Unicorn Publishing 1986 Fully half the book is about the author’s own nightmare (he was a respected professor of psychology, who eventually prevailed) and the second half is about flaws in the system. There are many illustrations, and the book makes interesting reading. Like “Wounded Innocents”, this book would make a great gift for someone who still thinks there is a legitimate system protecting children from legitimate molesters.

Steinman, Anne & Fox, David J. The Male Dilemma Jason Aronson 1974 “The Male Dilemma calls on men and women and upon the society they have made to revise anachronistic and unworkable patterns of sexual behavior. This must be done if they hope to salvage the relationships they already have, and achieve psychological and social stability and mutual sexual satisfaction in the future.”

Stoltenberg, John Refusing to be a Man Breitenbush Books 1988. Thirteen essays on how to be most deeply ashamed of your penis. {DG}

Karen Gordon has supplied the net with excerpts.

Thomas, David Not Guilty – The Case in Defense of Men, William Morrow & Co., New York 1993 David Thomas’ book title illustrates well the ‘haunted male’ phenomenon. One may well ask if entering pleas in a feminist kangaroo court itself does not point to a symptom of the gender malaise. The author walks over the trail blazed by Warren Farrell PhD, with the same disconcerting habit of arguing with himself on issues of central importance. Discussing the proposal of some campus male anti-rape aparatchiks to ban men from sidewalks at night so women may walk without fear, he muses over the response of men over the accusations that patriarchy uses male sexuality as an ‘offensive weapon’ in the war against women. ‘Most of us are afflicted with mass of different, often contr- adictory emotions…’, he writes. ‘First there is shame…Then comes a sense of denial. Like revisionist historians disputing the existence of Auschwitz we tell ourselves it can’t be true.’

The problem here, of course, is that Mr Thomas argues unwittingly – or should I say witlessly – for the prosecution, showing the depths of his own confusion. Most intelligent, well-informed men, would not be confounded to perdition when facing morally idiotic hyperboles issuing from people with axes to grind. Thomas, like Bly, Farrell and Lyndon does the TV babble circuit, and like them throws himself into tortuous poses in order to make his views merchantable with media where women rule.

This often makes him – and the others – incoherent, and sometimes plain silly. He trashes Schwarzenegger and dead John Wayne in tribute of feminist stereotypes for males. He applauds a California feminist lawyer who won a L.A. male Chicano a million dollar award for sexual harassment by his white female employer. ‘More power to her’, he says with the eagerness of a true political naif. I wonder if it occured to David Thomas that some women can master the concept of tokenism and/or are quite intellectually capable of manipulating the color-versus-gender perplex to their personal monetary advantage. {JS}

Thompson, Keith ed. To Be a Man — In Search of the Deep Masculine Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1991. A collection of articles by such writers as Robert Bly, Sam Keen, Warren Farrell, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, and many others. “…a boy becomes a man only through ritual and effort — …he must be initiated into the world of men. It doesn’t happen by itself, it doesn’t happen because he eats his Wheaties. And only men can do this work.” – Robert Bly {JR}

Vilar, Esther The Manipulated Man Bantam 1972 Whew! The author believes that men have been trained and conditioned by women, not unlike the way Pavlov conditioned his dogs, into becoming their slaves. A textbook of misogyny, but written by a woman. An interesting perspective on the roots of the male condition, but a bit rabid for my tastes. {DG}

John P. Gibbons has provided an extract.

Vogt, Gregory Max Return to Father Spring Publications, 1991 Vogt argues that the patriarch and patriarchy has been unfairly maligned. That in the wake of feminism, we have come to see patriarchy as representing only the shadow side of the patriarchy. So he proceeds to explore the positive qualities in the patriarch and the patriarchy. Included is his discussion of the language, the images of pattern and repair, and the archetypal father warrior. He also discusses three (what he calls) male bodies: the hunter, the builder, the philosopher.{EM}

Wexler, Richard Wounded Innocents Prometheus Books Assuming you are not in the midst of fighting for your life, you will enjoy this scathing, well-documented indictment of the child molestation “industry.” Over 350 pages, it is recommended proof that the Empress has no clothes.{FH}

Wishard, Bill & Wishard, Laurie Men’s Rights: A Handbook For the 80’s Cragmont 1980 Talks about the marriage contract, palimony suits, paternity suits, child support, abortion, the draft, alimony, child custody, visitation, etc. Well documented, but over a decade old so some of the rules have changed. I wish they’d put out a new edition.{DG}

Witkin-Lanoil , Georgia The Male Stress Syndrome Newmarket Press 1986 Haven’t read this one either. Everything you wanted to know about men and stress but didn’t know who to ask. “Good Stress, Bad Stress, and Male Stress,” “Stress and the Male Body,” “Growing Up Male,” and (thank goodness) “Living With the Male Stress Syndrome.”{DG}

Wylie, Philip Generation of Vipers Reinhart & Co. 1942 While this book will shock many modern readers, and its author has been accused of misogyny (perhaps not without some reason), still the book has considerable value for the perspective it brings, which is 180 degrees opposite to that of the “women’s movement.” Wylie argues that American society was already a “matriarchy” (his term) in 1940. He cites many reasons for thinking that women were already in charge of American social and family life, and that the supposed “power” of men was in name only.{RS}

Zilbergeld, Bernie The New Male Sexuality Bantam Books 1992 This is a complete rewrite of Zilbergeld’s “Male Sexuality” book of 1978. The chapters on sex itself, male/female anatomy, and treating various sexual (physiological) problems have been covered thoroughly elsewhere. Where this book really opens ones eyes is in discussions about fantasy models; asserting desires and conditions for sex; the differences between desire, arousal, and activity; and connecting with, listening to, and dealing with conflicts with your partner. It relates the changes, which were substantial enough to necessitate a complete rewrite rather than a revision, in sexual relations in part to the men’s movement. I recommend it.{JB}

Zubaty, Rich Surviving The Feminization Of America, How to Keep Women from Ruining Your Life. 1993. $19.95, Panther Press (800) 345-0096. Rich makes it not only OK to be a man, but describes why there are differences between men and women and what to do to be able to survive with inner peace in the War of the Sexes.

Zubaty, Rich Water People . Zubaty links the ideas of masculinity and water. The book is in the process of being published. We have an extract and appeal for help.

Reviewers:

BV — Bronis Vidugiris () DG — Dave Gross () DRT — David R Throop () DH — Dean Hughson () EM — Ed Matz () FZ — Frank Zepezauer () FH — Fred Hayward JB — Jim Battan () JR — Jerry Roe () JS — Jiri Severa () RF — Randolph Fritz () RS — Robert Sheaffer ()