American Men

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$30.00
Available for Pre-Order
  • American Men by Jordan Ritter Conn
A deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines--in profound and comprehensive ways--what it means to be a man in America.

AMERICAN MEN is a journalistic account of the lives of four men from vastly different backgrounds and experiences, charting how each of them construct their relationship to masculinity, and how they navigate that relationship over time. The book searches the rarely-discussed crevices of men's lives, chronicling traumas they've suffered and ways they've recovered, the ways they've both inflicted and survived violence, their relationships to sex and their own bodies, how they've wielded power and struggled with powerlessness, while trying to build families, friendships, and fuller relationships to themselves.

The book's protagonists include Ryan, an amateur MMA fighter who lives on a Mohawk reservation, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw toward bar room violence; Gideon, an itinerant, tall and handsome West Point graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challenges to his status as the masculine ideal; Joseph, a Seattle law student whose marriage teeters on the brink as he tries on his own to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma; and Nate, an Ohio man still living at home and trying to establish security for himself in a rural pocket of a red state, where he's under threat as someone who is Black, trans, and poor. The book draws from five years of interviewing these men and following them though their daily lives, interweaving their stories into a mosaic that explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity.
American Men
$30.00
Available for Pre-Order
Description
A deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines--in profound and comprehensive ways--what it means to be a man in America.

Men wield outsized power across all major institutions. But they are falling behind across all measures of well-being and success. They include loving husbands and absent fathers, corporate strivers and displaced workers, the objects and instruments of incredible violence. They are half the population. And yet when mentioned as a bloc, it's often to ask the question: What's wrong with them?

American Men is a book that burrows deep into the lives of four men, exploring how each of them construct their relationship to masculinity, and how they navigate that relationship over time. They include Ryan, an amateur MMA fighter from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw toward bar room violence; Gideon, an itinerant, tall and handsome West Point graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challenges to his status as the white masculine ideal; Joseph, a Seattle law student whose marriage teeters on the brink of turmoil as he tries on his own to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma; and Nate, a young Ohio man still living at home and trying to establish security for himself in a rural pocket of a red state, where he's under threat as someone who is Black, trans, and poor. Written with searing intimacy after five years of reporting, American Men interweaves their stories into a mosaic that explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity.

Description
A deeply intimate portrait of the lives of four men that examines--in profound and comprehensive ways--what it means to be a man in America.

Men wield outsized power across all major institutions. But they are falling behind across all measures of well-being and success. They include loving husbands and absent fathers, corporate strivers and displaced workers, the objects and instruments of incredible violence. They are half the population. And yet when mentioned as a bloc, it's often to ask the question: What's wrong with them?

American Men is a book that burrows deep into the lives of four men, exploring how each of them construct their relationship to masculinity, and how they navigate that relationship over time. They include Ryan, an amateur MMA fighter from the Akwesasne Mohawk territory, struggling to come to terms with both his sexuality as a closeted gay man and his draw toward bar room violence; Gideon, an itinerant, tall and handsome West Point graduate and former baseball star who unravels when he encounters challenges to his status as the white masculine ideal; Joseph, a Seattle law student whose marriage teeters on the brink of turmoil as he tries on his own to contend with the effects of childhood sexual trauma; and Nate, a young Ohio man still living at home and trying to establish security for himself in a rural pocket of a red state, where he's under threat as someone who is Black, trans, and poor. Written with searing intimacy after five years of reporting, American Men interweaves their stories into a mosaic that explores identity, heritage, and the pressures and performance of modern American masculinity.

ISBN
9781538709092
Publication Date
April 21, 2026
Binding
Hardcover
Item Condition
New
Language
English
Pages
336
Keywords
Social Science | Men's Studies; Biography & Autobiography | Cultural & Regional; Psychology | Mental Health; Psychology | Emotions