Of Boys and Men

Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

Richard Reeves

A positive vision for masculinity in a more equal world.

Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened.

Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.

The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood.

Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Brookings Institution Press

Pages: 256 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-0-8157-3987-6 • Hardback • September 2022 • $28.99 • (£21.99)

978-0-8157-3988-3 • eBook • September 2022 • $27.50 • (£20.99)

Subjects: Social Science / Men's Studies, Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy, Social Science / Gender Studies

Of Boys and Men

Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

Hardback

eBook

Summary

A positive vision for masculinity in a more equal world.
Boys and men are struggling. Profound economic and social changes of recent decades have many losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and in the family. While the lives of women have changed, the lives of many men have remained the same or even worsened.
Our attitudes, our institutions, and our laws have failed to keep up. Conservative and progressive politicians, mired in their own ideological warfare, fail to provide thoughtful solutions.
The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood.
Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Brookings Institution Press

Pages: 256 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-0-8157-3987-6 • Hardback • September 2022 • $28.99 • (£21.99)

978-0-8157-3988-3 • eBook • September 2022 • $27.50 • (£20.99)

Subjects: Social Science / Men's Studies, Political Science / Public Policy / Social Policy, Social Science / Gender Studies

Author

Richard V. Reeves is a senior fellow in Economic Studies and the Director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative. His research focuses on social mobility, inequality, and family change. Prior to joining Brookings, he was director of strategy to the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister.

Reviews

The subtitle of this book lays out the three areas the book explores: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It. Reeves surveys a wide range of social science scholarship on the issues men and boys face in the contemporary US to argue for a gender politics that can accommodate their specific needs. Rather than treat men as a monolithic identity, Reeves breaks down the problems men face by race, class, and education level to underscore the different challenges they encounter. Reeves’s sensitivity to the impacts of race and class on masculinity sets this book apart from other titles. Though Reeve’s project of rehabilitating American men might lend itself to anti-feminist efforts to roll back the advances made for women, Reeves encourages readers to pursue liberal gender politics that achieve greater opportunities for men and women by being sensitive to their unique needs.

— Choice Reviews

When Beauvoir was writing her manifesto on the plight of women, she noted that “the most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women,” and that “a man would never get the notion of writing a book on the peculiar situation of the human male.” Nowadays, there are many such books. Self-doubt has broken through the supposed imperviousness of masculine self-belief. Reeves’s book is only the latest; it is also one of the most cogent. That’s not just a consequence of his compelling procession of statistical findings. It’s also due to the originality of his crisply expressed thesis: that men’s struggles are not reducible to a masculinity that is too toxic or too enfeebled but, rather, reflect the workings of the same structural forces that apply to every other group.

— The New Yorker

In some ways the world remains male-dominated, yet many men are falling behind, says the author. Boys do worse than girls in school in many countries, and are more likely everywhere to end up in prison or kill themselves. He suggests practical, incremental reforms, such as having boys start school a year later.

— Economist

Throughout most of Richard Reeves’ excellent new book, Of Boys and Men, I wasn’t just nodding along, I was foot-stomping. Too little has been written about the troubles of boys and men.

— The Bulwark

Of Boys and Men has garnered widespread praise, and for good reason. Reeves isn’t content to simply point out a dispiriting social problem and be on his merry way. He offers solutions…. Reeves has written a tremendously thought-provoking, well-researched, and convincing book on the plight of the modern man. As a policy wonk, he proposes policy solutions.

— Christianity Today

Addressing the kind of male disadvantages that Reeves catalogs does not mean ignoring or excusing inequalities that favor men over women. It’s possible, Reeves writes, to “hold two thoughts in our head at once.” Indeed, it’s urgent that we do so.

— Commonweal