The Way of Men by Jack Donovan (10-Apr-2012) Paperback

Jack Donovan explores the nature of masculinity in this succinct and well thought out critique of modern masculinity. Mr. Donovan breaks new ground by suggesting that "being good at being a man is different than being a good man." This is the book that those of us in the "Fight Club" generation have been waiting for. Mr. Donovan's book asks the reader to look at himself and determine if he is truly living as a man. If nothing else, this book will make you question the status quo. That alone is worth the price.

Amazing book, absolutely read this if you're struggling to understand why the world seems strangely at war with itself in our modern culture wars. One point that made a lot of sense is the fact in a female run society, things are pushed towards no competition, everyone's trying to protect each other, everyone's trying to be nice all the time, and finally everyone's trying to be as comfortable as possible. The result is a world where everything is safe, nice, conformable, sweet, and likely cute. This sounds like hell, and I think many other men would agree.

He lays out the four virtues of a MAN very clear. It is not "be polite, be kind, etc." as those are virtues of a HUMAN, both men and women. For this he explains the virtues of a man are things that are associated more to men, such as "honor, strength, courage, and mastery". Of course some women can embody these traits, no one is saying they can't, but through history, this is what is associated with males.

I'll save the soapbox speech about how competition is a necessary skill we must master since it's used in everything from competing for a job, to sports, even driving in a car. This book covers MUCH more and really helps understand the basic driving forces between our current world.

In essence, you have two competing and COMPLIMENTARY drives, one is to defend your tribe/city/country's borders, be strong, challenge yourself and others. while on the inside of the safe border, the drive traditionally for women is to reduce aggression in the group, get everyone to agree, be safe, and comfortable. Now we live where the border defenders, the fighters are mixed in with the nurturers, causing issues because of this natural conflict of desire of outcome.

I loved the way of men....at times disturbing and other times hilarious. Donovan makes a really interesting comparison with chimpanzees and bonobos for 21st century.
I enjoyed the entire read so much that I read it in one evening...I couldn't put it down.

Great advice for men in the 21st century.

P.s. - I heard about his book through the Art of Manliness Podcast interview....if you haven't already...check out the Art of Manliness...this book's theme is right in line with them :)

If you are a man in contemporary society wondering "what's going on with men nowadays?", this is the book for you. Donovan outlines the history and anthropology of male social grouping, and presents a descriptive model of masculinity that will clarify a lot of what takes place in the news nowadays.

Many writers on the subject of masculinity today seem to start from the point of view that traditional masculine values are "outdated", that something is "wrong" with men, and that men need to change their nature somehow. Donovan, in contrast, manages to write about masculinity while maintaining the idea that being a man is a good thing, and masculinity is a positive force in the world.

Jack Donovan explores the question of "what is masculinity?" and imparts his revelations of what is so obvious, yet so obscured by blinders in our recent era. In this age of feminism, where boys and men have been vilified and demonized, and the virtues of men have been relegated to a cubicle, he writes so that men may understand their true nature.

Jack reminds men of what it means to be a man; to be manly. He reminds men of their importance.

Jack Donovan has written a great treatise on masculinity here, and this book ought to be widely read by men (and the women who like them).

Manliness, as the author defines it, consists as a constellation of interrelated attributes, all of which center on strength. Strength, being both the ability to exercise one's will against environmental forces and the ability to resist the environment and hold fast; physical strength, social fortitude, and charisma. The inherent duality in our concept of strength plays itself out in the lives of individual men, and in a masculine society writ large, as everyone is wont to project a concept of strength through his own personal lens.

Extant reviews of this work make much of the author's appeal to a primal gang, and in the subtext this might be read as transferring the recipients of masculine utility from females to other men. There is a difference between being a man's man and a woman's man. A man's man is usually successful with women, but it's due to his status as a solid fellow within a male ingroup, rather than his ability to pander to his princess until she grows tired of him and seeks out novelty at his expense.

Manhood is not, as popular culture would like us all to believe, "inherently toxic" or "in need of redefinition". Manhood, it is revealed, is not a destination at all. The title itself is a bit of foreshadowing in this regard. Being good at being a man doesn't mean you need to knock out Wladimir Klitschko in the first round. Few (if any) men could beat down Mike Tyson, but we can all be stronger tomorrow than we are today. Masculinity is, in the end, the acceptance of one's place on a sometimes perilous road toward being one's best self.

Read this book in one sitting.

Donovan has a very "dark and egotistical" writing style (compared to all the current "being a man is like a box of chocolates" type material that most of us catch ourselves reading), and as a developing man and a muslim, I found this book very enlightening in that respect.
Being a man can be a kick in the balls - and this book asserts that this is a great thing.

Highly recommend this book. I am going to be keeping an eye on this author and likely purchasing more of their books.

Firehouse men that crave the apocalypse but know nothing about a hard life with out the luxuries of modern life or served in the military, this can be a wake up call to what being a man is. Not just having the proper genitalia.

This is the kind of intellectual analysis of "masculinity" and gender roles feminists or other naysayers would have an extremely difficult time writing off as being "misogynistic" (not that that would stop them anyway). There were several moments I found extremely thought provoking and while I already agreed with the general vain of thought going into it, it made me reconsider some of my formerly held perspectives. Short but sweet and masterfully written.

Jack does an excellent job defining the challenge of manhood in this wonderful modern age we live in, and this book would probably not be necessary for anyone born before 1980. Most males born before that date were raised by two parents, played contact sports, rode bikes and skateboarded without helmets, played with fire crackers, owned air and 22 rifles, played contact sports and probably were involved in at least a few fist fights growing up, and enjoyed many other experiences that enabled us to define more clearly what is the way of men, even if only intuitively. Those born after that date really ought to read this book.

I do not necessarily agree with all of the conclusions, but I agree with Jack's definition of manhood's crisis. I think Jack could have made the work better by including the chapters offered as a free download titled: No Man's Land. This filled in a couple gaps and would have made work better. IMHO.

Overall, I liked the book but think is raises many excellent though difficult questions.

I could identify with the book and his view. Something is lost in being a man today. It is a bad word in the US. Life needs balance of both genders. The fast changing world we live in has not found a balance. I see this body of discussion is necessary to find the balance.

Arguably the modern classic on masculinity. Jack Donovan works to strip away all the culturally/religiously relative definitions of manhood that exist in order to arrive at the very essentials of what makes men, men. He calls these essentials the “tactical virtues” and they include: strength, courage, mastery, and honor.
While the amoral nature of Donovan’s idea of masculinity may make some uncomfortable, that is in many ways its greatest strength. Whenever my thinking on manhood gets muddled by all the competing definitions and claims out there, I return to The Way of Men to get reacquainted with the very core of masculinity. It’s a short, accessible book, with pithy, muscular prose — there’s really no reason every man shouldn’t read it and consider its forceful and challenging ideas. Once you do, you can take Donovan’s vision of the foundation of masculinity and stop there, or you can add a moral/philosophical layer onto it.

This book takes you out of your everyday life and puts it in the perspective of how men arrived to what we are today. In a world where we're consumed in technology and work, this book is that good slap in the face all guys need when we don't see the bigger picture.

Mr. Donovan is honestly 'ranting' but he's doing so coherently and courageously, especially in opposition to the current 'spirit of the age' which Donovan sums up its attack on manhood on page 106:

'The repudiation of violent masculinity is the murder of male identity'.

I'm not as sanguine as Donovan about the collapse of technological civilization re-setting natural biological inclinations.In such situations, if you are not part of the fighter elite of 'us', there seems to be another natural inclination, to force non-elites, the weak, the losers of 'them' (who you didn't kill) into slavery of various sorts. Purdah for women, along with polygamy, is another predictable consequence, as the denigration of women's status down to 'just breeder' is all too common as well--and with few alphas hogging more than their share of women along with disdaining the intelligence and character of women, male homosexuality including pederasty becomes common, even expected.

No, while I know Donovan himself is homosexual (not 'gay') I am NOT implying he has any inclination let alone approval for below age of consent. Historically, however, in the case of the ancient Greeks, the Samurai, and others, youthful gangsters ( in their 20s) would have to make do with adolescent males while they waited their turn to have access to the girls.

To use a Walking Dead example, in the Negan's community, only the the Negan has rights, and his thugs in descending order. Donovan is being utterly basic in the use of 'gang', but unless those perimeter-holders tie their use of strength, courage, mastery into an honor which includes the recognition and the protection of the rights of those who are not in the gang, then thuggish rule quickly becomes thuggish oppression. Combined with a 'solidarity' reinforced by racism or religious intolerance (including atheism) and you have a formula for flatly evil behavior.

Alright, those are my reservations on this little book. What I find positive about it is Donovan challenging the male-bashing-to-the-point-of-demonizing current zeitgeist, much of it based on (largely discredited) 1970s feminist ideology of 'tabula rosa' regarding gender personalities.

I work with counseling young men getting out of prison. I can truly say it helped me understand my own nature and men's nature better. This book is a tough pill to swallow, but it's great medicine for knowing the world you live in better.

This book takes you out of your everyday life and puts it in the perspective of how men arrived to what we are today. In a world where we're consumed in technology and work, this book is that good slap in the face all guys need when we don't see the bigger picture.

Mr. Donovan is honestly 'ranting' but he's doing so coherently and courageously, especially in opposition to the current 'spirit of the age' which Donovan sums up its attack on manhood on page 106:

'The repudiation of violent masculinity is the murder of male identity'.

I'm not as sanguine as Donovan about the collapse of technological civilization re-setting natural biological inclinations.In such situations, if you are not part of the fighter elite of 'us', there seems to be another natural inclination, to force non-elites, the weak, the losers of 'them' (who you didn't kill) into slavery of various sorts. Purdah for women, along with polygamy, is another predictable consequence, as the denigration of women's status down to 'just breeder' is all too common as well--and with few alphas hogging more than their share of women along with disdaining the intelligence and character of women, male homosexuality including pederasty becomes common, even expected.

No, while I know Donovan himself is homosexual (not 'gay') I am NOT implying he has any inclination let alone approval for below age of consent. Historically, however, in the case of the ancient Greeks, the Samurai, and others, youthful gangsters ( in their 20s) would have to make do with adolescent males while they waited their turn to have access to the girls.

To use a Walking Dead example, in the Negan's community, only the the Negan has rights, and his thugs in descending order. Donovan is being utterly basic in the use of 'gang', but unless those perimeter-holders tie their use of strength, courage, mastery into an honor which includes the recognition and the protection of the rights of those who are not in the gang, then thuggish rule quickly becomes thuggish oppression. Combined with a 'solidarity' reinforced by racism or religious intolerance (including atheism) and you have a formula for flatly evil behavior.

Alright, those are my reservations on this little book. What I find positive about it is Donovan challenging the male-bashing-to-the-point-of-demonizing current zeitgeist, much of it based on (largely discredited) 1970s feminist ideology of 'tabula rosa' regarding gender personalities.

I work with counseling young men getting out of prison. I can truly say it helped me understand my own nature and men's nature better. This book is a tough pill to swallow, but it's great medicine for knowing the world you live in better.

Amazing book, as an active duty military member it articulated the feelings I had that caused me to join and seek out fraternal bonds. Great book for any college student considering a military future.

The author delves into frustrations of expressing masculinity in the consumerist paradise of the 21st century. In what environment did we evolve, as men, and where are we going? This book is more of a light primer to some "manosphere-ish" points of view rather than a deeply researched intellectual tome. The writing doesn't have the polished, lyrical quality of more mainstream best-sellers, but he gets the point across well enough. Miles and miles ahead of Roosh, but not at the level of a Neil Strauss, Rollo or Charles Bukowski (a red pill writer before there was a red pill, if you ask me). After a slow start, the author really starts to shine in the chapter "Bonobo Masturbation Society", which is worth the price of the book alone.

Overall, I'm proud to have this book on my shelf and I'm happy to support a fellow wayfarer in the quest for masculine truth, meaning and self-improvement in the modern world.