Book Review: The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood.

Edited by William J. Bennett

Very American, very male.

This book could be very valuable for a home-schooled, adolescent, American boy. It is very thick: 546 pages of high quality paper in a well bound, 2 pound book. The pages are bound in that jagged style that tempts ones fingers to turn five pages instead of one page, because the fingertips cannot determine by feel where the next page is. I found myself always double checking what page I was on, because I kept turning too many pages. (Truly, this book feels larger than my bible does.)

The stories are good ones, inspiring, encouraging, good work ethic et cetera. Many of them I have read somewhere before, some of them were new to me, and I must admit, it is nice to have them all together in one large volume. The target audience, I believe is, as I mentioned, young men on the cusp of adulthood who have time to read the important writings and stories of the past. Homeschooled boys will have this opportunity more readily than public schooled boys, because Mother will be choosing their reading material.

While I have no quarrel with the content, per se, nor any discomfort with William Bennett, (In fact I already own and enjoy a copy of his book , “The Book of Virtues”), as a woman and a Canadian I do find the strong national and male gender focus of this book a little irksome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen this particular book to review, but how was I supposed to know it was geared to young American men?
Of course it is important for young men to be reminded of honorable American role models, as Mr. Bennett himself points out on page (xix), “Men, American men in particular, are increasingly dependent on the government dole rather than the fruits of their own labor.” … “There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the Great Depression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical. These men will find it hard to attract spouses. Many will pick up habits that have a corrosive cultural influence on those around them.” While this might be true, (might not be, too…), I find it hard to imagine that the troubled men who Mr. Bennett might consider to be lazy, would be motivated to pick up this heavy book and find a story that challenges them.

The book is well written, well edited and obviously presented with the best of intentions, yet I find it to be discouraging and unhelpful. In my experience, men “on the dole” have a lot more issues in their lives making them feel hopeless about their futures than a generous supply of inspiring stories can possibly hope to answer.

I do not agree that these men ought to know better, or that reading good stories like these could teach them what they need to know to live a “better” life. I believe that they more likely have endured an injury to their souls that makes them incapable of hope for their own futures. What these fellows need is friendly encouragement from the men and women who they come into contact with. Perhaps a hand up, a job offer, someone with good intentions like those of William J. Bennett coming INTO their lives willing to get messy in order to help them figure out how to live a fulfilling life.

My low rating is an objection to the ridiculous tone of the entire tome: that education can help a man make a decent living when there are no jobs.

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for the promise to read the entire book and give an honest review of it.