What Is a Man?: 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virture

After eighteen years in education, Waller R. Newell raised a question. The question itself sounds simple enough but it is one whose answer is surprisingly elusive. A strictly biological answer seems to beg the question: technically accurate but superficial -- completely devoid of insight. It cannot easily be dismissed, for it is too close to who we are, not just as individuals but as a species. What is a man? Less than six months after releasing my essay "Too Many Guys; Too Few Men," I happened across a used bookshop I'd never seen before and stopped in to see what treasures might be found. In short order, I came across a copy of Newell's What Is a Man? 3,000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue. Its back cover included such teasers as "Marcus Aurelius on self-mastery," "Jane Austen on gentlemanliness," "Cicero on the soul," "Frederick Douglass on determination," "John Locke on principles," "Plato on virtue and vice," and "Jonathan Swift on manners." By the time that I made it to the first page, I had already determined to buy the volume. This book should find a ready welcome at this point in our history. More than ever (it would seem), boys have been growing up hearing conflicting messages and finding themselves confused, unsure of themselves and of their place in the world. Absent fathers cannot help boys to aspire to high principles, to act well, or to learn the art of self-restraint. Without a framework to govern and to direct the powerful force of testosterone, boys find themselves reaching physical maturity without having the emotional and intellectual maturity needed to aspire to manly virtue. Thus, many of our young men are driven by their lust rather than learning to love the beauty of women and enjoying the simple pleasure of observation. Boys find themselves full of rage, becoming aggressive and even violent instead of learning to focus their energy to set right what has been made wrong. Boys find acceptance only among each other, and only through demonstration of physical prowess. And through movies and video games our boys are fed a steady stream of sex and violence. Aggression and self-satisfaction leads to high scores and admiration of scantily-clad women in this world. This is but a mild caricature of their own experience at school, where recognition and even esteem among peers comes from aggression and physicality. Mothers, of course, want to help, but are completely unequipped to understand the experience of male adolescence. Without this understanding, finding a way to influence boys positively can be quite difficult. While mothers cannot relate to their sons as can fathers, they nevertheless can help them to aspire to high principles as celebrated throughout history and literature and as desired by themselves. Education is historically the means by which our citizens, young and old, male and female, are helped to grow from whatever raw material they're given and into the mature, sensible, and productive members of s

I bought this book mainly as a source for a research paper I had to write. It was a spectacular read, at least the portions that I used for my paper. Newell does a prime job of displaying what, in his view, being a man is all about. It is quite a wonderful thing to have a compendium of this sort as it broadens knowledge both in specific fields and also generally. I'd recommend this if you're looking into readings by various famous authors and other people of the sort. -Kev

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much from this book, as most of this type are loaded with fillers, with very few real gems. But that isn't the case at all. From Francis Bacon on Love, to St. Augustine on the path to manhood, to Kurt Cobain on how fatherhood changed his life, this book answers almost every question where being a man is concerned. If you're excepting false macho posturing, you'll be disappointed as every passage in this large book (over 500 pages) is insightful, deeply thought out, and sincere. There are hundreds of passages, some only a paragraph long, some pages long. The subjects are varied, and include Love, Wisdom, Women, Family, Fatherhood, Childhood and adolescence, Honor, Integrity, War, Character and Conduct, Leadership, Nobility, Rebellion, and much more. There are even some poems (including Kipling's outstanding poem 'If', on what it is to be a man), correspondance, and myths. Each passage is prefaced by a bit of commentary by the editor, Waller R. Newell. My favorite passages were Kipling's 'If', The Man of Character by Charles de Gaulle, A Man Must Stand Erect by Marcus Aurelius, and the couple passages from John F Kennedy. Actually, this collection is so remarkable, it really is hard to choose favorites. This book reintroduces (as if it were lost!) all the qualities that men are taught to shun these days, namely, honor, pride, responsibility, strength, and dignity. I can't recommend this book enough. If you're a man, or know a man (so yes, that means just about everyone), you need to get a copy of this book. It is a breath of fresh air, sorely needed, and indispensible.

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.

An avid reader of nonfiction, I was really impressed with the content of this book. It has something for every type of man and for almost every type of issue that a man faces in life. From humerous anecdotes by Benjamin Franklin and Aesop to thought-provoking commencment addresses by Teddy Roosevelt to eloquent speeches by President Kennedy, the writings contained in this book are invaluable resources geared solely toward making you a better man.