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Published Sep 2008
352 pages
Genre: Advice
Publication Information
Why do so many guys seem stuck between adolescence and adulthood? Why do so many of them fail to launch? Just what is going on with America's young men?
The passage from adolescence to adulthood was once clear, coherent, and relatively secure: in their late teenage years and early twenties, guys "put away childish things" and entered their futures as responsible adults. Today growing up has become more complex and confusing as young men drift casually through college and beyond—hanging out, partying, playing with tech toys, watching sports. But beneath the appearance of a simple extended boyhood, a more dangerous social world has developed, far away from the traditional signposts and cultural signals that once helped boys navigate their way to manhood.
The average young American man today is moving through a new stage of development, a buddy culture unfazed by the demands of parents, girlfriends, jobs, kids, and other nuisances of adult life. Sociologist and gender studies authority Michael Kimmel has identified this territory as "Guyland," a place that is both a stage of life and a new social arena ....
In mapping the social world where tomorrow's men are made, Kimmel offers a view into the minds and times of America's sons, brothers, and boyfriends, and works toward redefining what it means to be a man today—and tomorrow. Only by understanding this world and this life stage can we enable young men to chart their own paths, to stay true to themselves, and to travel safely through Guyland, emerging as responsible and fully formed men of integrity and honor.
"In the end, Kimmel offers a highly practical guide to male youth." - Publishers Weekly.
"A useful, highly readable overview of an important social phenomenon." - Kirkus Reviews.
"Every parent who is about to write a check for college tuition should read this book first and discuss it with his or her son...and daughter." - Michael G. Thompson, Ph.D., co-author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys.
"Guyland takes up where Real Boys left off...a must-read for parents, teachers, coaches, young women who are so confused by the guys in their midst-and for guys themselves who yearn to break free of unwritten rules that leave them half a man, rather than a whole person." - William Pollack, author of Real Boys.
"Just as Reviving Ophelia introduced readers to the culture of teenage girls, Guyland takes us to the land of young men." -- Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia.
This information about Guyland was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Michael Kimmel is a professor of sociology and a leading scholar in the field of gender studies. He teaches at State University of New York, Stony Brook, and is the author or editor of more than twenty volumes on the subject, including the groundbreaking Manhood in America: A Cultural History. He lectures extensively on college campuses in the United States and abroad. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.
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