Manliness

Manliness is a book by conservative-leaning Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield, who identifies and extols this trait which has been recognized since Ancient Greece. This book is extraordinarily important simply by embracing its title.

An entertaining read, this book is short on culture and American political history (except talks extensively about Teddy Roosevelt), while long in academic arguments based on mostly-ancient literature. Professor Mansfield points out that Macbeth contains Shakespeare's most praise of manliness and has many enlightening discussions of literature, such as a passage about Henry James' anti-feminist Bostonians.

Professor Mansfield discusses at length the writings of Ernest Hemingway, who Mansfield calls "the writer in our time (or just before) most celebrated for manliness." Mansfield compares Hemingway to Homer in the manliness of their works. John Steinbeck was very manly in his writings, yet is omitted from this book.

Mansfield sees manliness in athletes (too many to mention, he points out), and also in a few women such as Margaret Thatcher (a favorite of right-of-center professors). Mansfield lacks an adequate discussion of manliness among military heroes, such as Stonewall Jackson or George Patton (Mansfield does include a mention of the movie). Mansfield does contain some passing references to George Washington.

The book is excellent but has notable omissions: no mention of muscle cars, by which young American men found expression of their manliness in culture. Despite countless examples of manliness in the American Civil War, this book contains virtually nothing about it. The book admittedly avoids the issue of homosexuality, and it predates the rise of the very manly Donald Trump. The book has only a very superficial reference to Phyllis Schlafly and fails to recognize the significance of the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment.

10th anniversary interview[edit]

Mansfield chose to mark the tenth anniversary of the book's publication by giving a c.75min interview about it to Bill Kristol for the Foundation for Constitutional Government. A transcript and audio podcast are also available for download at the website.

Movies[edit]

Movies could be rated by their degree of manliness. Over the last 60 years, there has been a liberal trend towards emasculating movies such that few promote manliness today.

See also[edit]

• John Steinbeck