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American Manhood

A Concise History of Masculinity in U.S. History and Culture

Bret Carroll

While the concepts of manhood and masculinity have assumed an established place in gender and historical studies and masculinity is the subject of wide popular interest and discussion, there is currently no up-to-date, comprehensive historical overview of the subject. American Manhood will introduce readers to the dynamic interplay between the perceptions and experiences we call “masculinity” and major social, cultural, political, and economic developments in our history. Its central argument will be that Americans of different racial, class, ethnic, and regional groups have historically used concepts of masculine identity to gender relations of power and national belonging in ways that attempt either to entrench or to stake their claims to positions of authority and legitimacy in American life. Gender, the book assumes and will demonstrate, provides a crucial analytic category for understanding U.S. history.

The book will cover the period from roughly the early seventeenth century to the present. It will utilize a combination of chronological and topical approaches to present a state-of-the-art narrative, reflective of current historical scholarship, to a broad general audience. The anticipated audience will bring to their reading a familiarity with recent popular discussions of masculinity; American Manhood will use accessible prose to reveal to them the enormous complexity, diversity, and historical rootedness of the topic – to deepen readers’ understanding of a subject they thought they knew.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4422-4350-7 • Hardback • May 2026 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4422-4351-4 • eBook • May 2026 • $36.00 • (£30.00) (coming soon)

Series: American Ways

Subjects: History / United States / General, History / Social History, Social Science / Men's Studies

American Manhood

A Concise History of Masculinity in U.S. History and Culture

Hardback

Summary

While the concepts of manhood and masculinity have assumed an established place in gender and historical studies and masculinity is the subject of wide popular interest and discussion, there is currently no up-to-date, comprehensive historical overview of the subject. American Manhood will introduce readers to the dynamic interplay between the perceptions and experiences we call “masculinity” and major social, cultural, political, and economic developments in our history. Its central argument will be that Americans of different racial, class, ethnic, and regional groups have historically used concepts of masculine identity to gender relations of power and national belonging in ways that attempt either to entrench or to stake their claims to positions of authority and legitimacy in American life. Gender, the book assumes and will demonstrate, provides a crucial analytic category for understanding U.S. history.

The book will cover the period from roughly the early seventeenth century to the present. It will utilize a combination of chronological and topical approaches to present a state-of-the-art narrative, reflective of current historical scholarship, to a broad general audience. The anticipated audience will bring to their reading a familiarity with recent popular discussions of masculinity; American Manhood will use accessible prose to reveal to them the enormous complexity, diversity, and historical rootedness of the topic – to deepen readers’ understanding of a subject they thought they knew.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 200 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4422-4350-7 • Hardback • May 2026 • $38.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4422-4351-4 • eBook • May 2026 • $36.00 • (£30.00) (coming soon)

Series: American Ways

Subjects: History / United States / General, History / Social History, Social Science / Men's Studies

Author

Bret Carroll, professor of history at California State University, Stanislaus served as editor-in-chief of American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia (Sage 2003).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The New World: Manhood in Euro-Indian Contact

Chapter 2: New Men: Establishing Colonies

Chapter 3: Manhood in the Revolutionary Era

Chapter 4: Manhood in the New Nation

Chapter 5: Manhood Lost and Found: African-American Masculinities in Slavery and Freedom

Chapter 6: Manhood in Urban-Industrial Society

Chapter 7: Manhood and the American Century

Chapter 8: Manhood Today: Masculinities Unbound

Features

- First broad overview of manhood in American history in almost 20 years.
- Author is a leading scholar of American masculinity
- Strong paperback potential for courses on gender and American history.

American Manhood

A Concise History of Masculinity in U.S. History and Culture

Bret Carroll

American Manhood

A Concise History of Masculinity in U.S. History and Culture

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