Manliness

Thoughtful, vexing, and ultimately irresistible book . . . neither a chest-thumping celebration of masculinity nor a scientific snore on 'biological maleness.' -O TheOprah Magazine It's a subtle exploration about the virtues and vices of the thymotic urge. -Frank Rich, New York Times Quaint. -Maureen Dowd, New York Times This is a book no-one else could have written . . . few American professors can be so unsackably eminent that they can afford to stroll through such a minefield of political incorrectness. . . . This is a fascinating book - part co-ed, part philosophy treatise, part cri de coeur. Unthinking liberals will dismiss it; thinking radical feminists will hate it. The rest of us (including thinking liberals, but perhaps excluding humourless ones) will find its jokes deliciously dry, and its arguments subtle and strong. -Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph Mansfield draws on a rich variety of sources . . . a treatise on how American society reached the point that it has. -Shane Hegarty, The Irish Times Harvey C Mansfield's Manliness . . . [is an] urgent and timely clarion call. So you nerds and sensitive, liberal, left-leaning wimps out there, listen carefully to what Mansfield, a political scientist of some note, has to say. . . . Save the future, assert your manliness, and go forth to rule the world. -Ziauddin Sardar, New Statesman Selected as a 2007 AAUP University Press Book for Public and Secondary School Libraries Annoying at times (often!), but never uninteresting, this book has much of importance to say. -Arlene Saxonhouse, University of Michigan A work of thought as well as a provocation, Manliness deserves to be widely read, argued over, and pondered. -David Bromwich, Yale University Mansfield argues that manliness-in its combination of stubbornness and rationality-provides a ground for political life. His work is a thoughtful attempt to move us to think more clearly about who we are, and about the future of our liberal society. -Mary Nichols, Baylor University