The Way of Men is a book which seeks to define what exactly makes a man who is "good at being a man" rather than a "good man" in other ways-such as religious. The author, Jack Donovan, argues that the way of the man is the way of the gang and one needs strength, courage, mastery, and honor as the four cardinal virtues of being good at "being a man." The book is partially a response to the manhood books that started to come out in the 1990s back when there was the "90s male" that was supposed to be attentive to the needs of women or something.
In many ways the book is also a sort of spiritual spin off to the movie, Fight Club, where bored, High IQ, suburbanites seek enlightenment by getting out of their safe, consumerist lifestyles by means of fighting. Just as with fight club, there is a cry against the soul destroying emptiness of the modern world in this book too. One can sense the frustration of many young men who look out at the safe, rule ridden modern world and ask is there more? Can one find more through valorous struggle?
The book is therefore like a primer on basic manhood for younger men who live in a well ordered society. Its focus is on the basics of warfare in a hunter-gatherer tribe which has an allure when the bills, and other chains of civilization seem to be heavy.
To this reviewer however, the book was a bit light on the spiritual substance and it ignored the fact that men must still operate in a civilization. This reviewer was in many regular school-yard fights as well as combat in Iraq and it is difficult to see that a return to a gang and fighting is some sort of path to enlightenment. I feel that my military decorations are just vanity-however hard won. While Donovan makes an excellent case that his study strips down manhood to its bare essentials, it seems that civilization is here to stay and navigating it as a man remains an important skill. Remember, we just had a severe financial downturn and terrible recession from 2007 to 2009 and the world didn't fill up with buckskin wearing Berserkers in world-restarting Mannerbunds. Even in my combat time I experienced only a short second of frenzied savagery and even then the normal bonds of civilization and order returned quite quickly. The four virtues of Freemasonry: Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, & Justice thereby offer a different, more nuanced look at being good at being a man. While reading this book I was not able to get away from the idea that General Stanley A. McChrystal, very much a man who was good at "being a man" went on to teach a course about "managing failure" after he left the service. Not every challenge is protecting the tribe from wild animals, and not everything is one long successful march to "manliness."
In short, if you've done a large stretch of fighting the ideas seem a bit flat, although they are eloquently argued and deliberately simplified for effect. Essentially, this book needs to really be entry one of a multi volume work. Donovan needs to take his ability to simplify complex ideas and show how to continue to be good at being a man when one is not a youth on the far, savage frontier-but older-and navigating the corridors of civilization while carrying out deadly serious business in clean, well lit rooms where reasonable men don't bother to raise their voices.
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Popular Highlights in this book
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Not a big deal but arrived damaged
I'm not going to return it since it's gonna get some wear and tear anyway, but it came out of the package with some damage.
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2015
- Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2024
Top reviews from other countries
- TjerkReviewed in the Netherlands on August 9, 2023
Every man should read this book
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- Zheng MAReviewed in Australia on October 27, 2022
The book that any man would not want to miss
