Recommended Reading

What is masculinity? Ask ten men and you'll get ten vague, conflicting answers. The Way of Men offers a simple, straightforward answer-without getting bogged down in religion, morality, or politics. It's a guide for understanding who men have been and the challenges men face today. The Way of Men captures the silent, stifling rage of men everywhere who find themselves at odds with the over-regulated, over-civilized, politically correct modern world. If you've ever closed your eyes and wished for one day as a lion, this book is for you.

The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle’s most widely read and influential works. Ideas central to ethics—that happiness is the end of human endeavor, that moral virtue is formed through action and habituation, and that good action requires prudence—found their most powerful proponent in the person medieval scholars simply called “the Philosopher.” Drawing on their intimate knowledge of Aristotle’s thought, Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins have produced here an English-language translation of the Ethics that is as remarkably faithful to the original as it is graceful in its rendering.

George Washington's Rules & Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation is based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. The first English edition of these rules was available in Francis Hawkins' Youths Behavior, or Decency in Conversation Amongst Men, which appeared in 1640, and it is from work that Washington seems to have copied. The rules as Washington wrote them out are a simplified version of this text. However much he may have simplified them, these precepts had a strong influence on Washington, who aimed to always live by them. The rules focus on self-respect and respect for others through details of etiquette. The rules offer pointers on such issues as how to dress, walk, eat in public, and address one's superiors.

  It is imperative that we understand our nation’s philosophical and political foundations. As the members of the 1787 Constitutional Convention and others settled into two primary camps – the Federalists and Antifederalists – a myriad of literary material burst onto the scene, championing or damning the new Constitution. Debates on the scope and scale of a centralized government’s authority, the proposal of a national bank, slavery, and other issues dominated the nation’s public square.

Part One maintains the reactions from mainly the Antifederalists and their fears of a path towards totalitarianism. Part Two provides the responses by the Federalists as well as the writings which led to the Bill of Rights – the first great compromise within the American system of Constitutional Republicanism. 

We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? 

The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life.  The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness."

Stephen Pressfield's historical fictional take on the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC ought to be among the collection of any man either part of a team or charged with its leadership.  The epic and bloody detailing of the fighting between the Persian army and the Spartan-led Greek coalition makes for an engrossing reading on its own, but Gates of Fire is elevated by the slow-burning development of its theme of fraternal devotion.

Despite the immense familiarity with Superman's  journey to Earth, Superman: Secret Origins nevertheless is a terrific telling.  It's not so much a rehashing of the plot points, but rather an underscoring of the true character of Superman.  What is most pointed about the Man of Tomorrow is that he understands that his powers are meant to inspire people to help themselves.  In contrast, we observe Lex Luthor's hollow generosity to provide others with immediate gratification is nothing more than a means for his own self-serving affirmation and power.

Superman is reintroduced not as an angsty depressive grappling with self-doubt, but as a confident yet still fallible lover of humanity and beacon of virtue.

In The Ajax Dilemma, Paul Woodruff examines one of today's most pressing moral issues: how to distribute rewards and public recognition without damaging the social fabric. How should we honor those whose behavior and achievement is essential to our overall success? Is it fair or right to lavish rewards on the superstar at the expense of the hardworking rank-and-file?  How do we distinguish an impartial fairness from what is truly just? 

Woodruff argues that while we can never create a perfect system for distributing just rewards, we can recognize the essential role that wisdom, compassion, moderation, and respect must play if we are to restore the basic sense of justice on which all communities depend.