The Way of Men

I’ve really enjoyed Jack Donovan’s books, especially Becoming a Barbarian, so I was excited to read The Way of Men. It definitely didn’t disappoint. I enjoy Donovan’s writing and the way he explores his ideas about masculinity, brotherhood, and what it means to be a man. This was another book that gave me plenty to think about and kept me interested throughout. If you’ve enjoyed Donovan’s other books, I think this is a great addition to the collection. Definitely another one I’m glad I picked up.

Jack Donovan first came to my attention sometime in 2007, when I found on top of the curbside paper recycling of downtown Portland bookstore, a postcard proclaiming "GAY IS DEAD" and turning it over to see that it announced the publication of his first book on masculinity, the bristling manifesto Androphilia. His writing and ideas have consistently struck a chord with me ever since. I am often challenged by his convictions and must ponder my own. His writing is timely, bravely contentious, and paternally necessary. The scope and flavor of the writing is somewhere between The Naked Ape and The Planet of the Apes. Donovan's brawny distillation carves quickly to the bone and marrow of what makes a man more than just a hairless ape. The text steers confidently from cool scholarly observation to rousing passages flavored of a Nietzschean urgency. Although not deeply philosophical enough to be heavily aphoristic, rather Donovan accomplishes the vital task of codifying the fundamental tenets of manhood, Strength, Mastery, Honor and Courage; how they coalesce into the dynamism of an individual man and then tribally with the gang. This is an immensely enjoyable book and it builds well upon Donovan's established polemic legacy. The pace is brisk, always salient, and convincing without pretense. There is a fine charismatic flair to Jack's dissertation that bespeaks a Tyler Durden-ish manifesto of manliness. Minus the soap-making and explosives of course, at least literally, but the challenges put to the reader are radical in the face of the complacent and exponentially growing bonobo masturbation society. Overall it packs a good wallop. However it sometimes felt over-written, or wordy, but well balanced by its sheer profundity and steely candor. Clearly Donovan has arrived at the quintessential of masculinity. To the downtrodden and emasculated male house-pets, challenge your ideas about masculinity with Donovan's The Way Of Men. Furthermore reverse-engineer your own feminized behavior patterns with Simon Shepperd's All About Women. A man shouldn't be a bitch. Disengage from the bonobo torpor. The ongoing hard work of developing yourself as a man will be worth it. So if the simians of The Planet Of The Apes had produced a warrior-philosopher, imagine that one of his initial works would be like The Way Of Men. Fiction, however, is sometimes stranger than truth and to some degree this is realized in the recent film Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes: Curious George as transcendent proto-fascist, right down to a bundle of sticks. Once the über-chimp Caesar arrives at the primate prison, he establishes his perimeter and begins to form his gang, he gains alpha status through action, intellect and promethean biochemistry, uplifts his comrades each to their own need, suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, meanwhile taking up arms, legs and four hands against a bridge of troubles and by opposing thumbs- ending them. Caesar and his band of brothers went forth to #StartTheWorld! And so should you.

I enjoyed reading this book quite a lot. I must say, I was glued to it from the beginning to the end. Yet, I must admit I don't agree with all the ideas displayed by Jack Donovan. But it certainly has made me think a lot about what it means to be a man in our current society. I like books, which create some kind of chaos in me. Yesterday, I spent the entire day thinking about the ideas in "The Way of Men". I agree with the 4 virtues of courage, mastery, honor and strength as being the main traits that define us from women. Now it was total craziness when he started talking about us going back to tribal age. The way of the man is the way of the gang and the way of the violence. Violence has never bring anything else than more violence. Does a man become more masculine just because he goes out and kills his foes for his tribe? Men for generations and yet even today still do the same. We have always warred each other for resources. Mostly for resources that go to the richer men. Back then, it was for a tribe leader, we fought for women, land etc. Nowadays, we fight for oil or other resources. Not much has changed! Men still have advantage over women! Women are commonly more passive, and won't bother to settle for a life of family. While men can use their aggressiveness to build their business and fortune. I am not saying this is always the case. But this is the first time that both men and women can truly decide their future. They can either decide to build a career, their business or stay with their kids and see them grow up.

I give this book five stars, though later in the book I find the authors conclusions flawed and a bit too reactive for my taste. Lets start with the many strengths of this book. It is an examination of masculinity throughout history, and from before recorded history. He says that the four attributes of masculinity that are cross cultural are strength, courage, mastery and honor. He relates all these to hunter gatherer groups and gangs, and examines them in an amoral context - they are neither good or bad, they just are. And to a real degree he is correct, and I agree that we all have the drive to possess and exhibit these traits, to some extent , still within us. I also agree with him that as a society, there are not many outlets for finding and developing these within ourselves. His focus on manliness, what it means, and how these traits were valued for longer than we have been civilized means that some of these truths are uncomfortable. As he says, he is looking at how to be good at being a man not how to be a good man or a good person. I think that recognizing these instinctual drives will help someone recognize political rhetoric and advertising that appeals to them on an emotional level, and also help us as men to begin to explore our connections to the vital, primitive parts of ourselves, and do so in a way that give us control of these drives and allows the power they unleash to enhance how we live. Where he goes off the rails, in my opinion, is, as I said above, his re activity. Referring to secret cabals of managers, feminists and corporations that actively conspire to rob us of our masculinity puts far more direction and . malignancy to social forces than they deserve, and indicates a bit of paranoia. While there may be some small truth to it, I think these forces arise more because of our instincts to acquire and be comfortable than because of some secret masterminds operating in the background in a coherent manner. His emphasis on honor in warrior groups like the Samurai, Christian knights, mobsters and gangs is on point, but he misses something vital. First, the code of the knights and samurai was rarely actually lived up to by them. Secondly, such codes are often used as tools for manipulation in gangs. Many mobsters including Greg Scarpa and Whitey Bulger, , talked the talk, but also were paid informants for the FBI. Many gang leaders use the "no snitching" code to get lower level members to take the fall for them. While he did discuss competition within groups, he never mentioned that aspect of it. However, this book is a MUST read for men. My advice is, when you disagree or agree with him, check your emotions. Find real reasons to discount his later arguments. Don't let cultural conditioning or easy dismissals rob you of the chance to exercise your mind a bit, or throw out the absolutely useful truths in it because he takes them in a different direction. It takes courage and mastery (two of traits he mentions) to develop your own conclusions, and that is what a real man would do anyway. I like to think that the author would agree with me on that.

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.

The Way of Men by Jack Donovon is a long essay on the state of "Manhood" today. As such the book fall into three sections. In the first section Jack defines a Man by Strength, Mastery, Courage and Honor. The writing is good at this point. The points made, while not necessarily original, are insightful as to the reasons men and boys are dropping out, not competing, not making successes of themselves in the modern world. Then the language turns negative, blaming "civilization" and "feminism (never well defined) and the confining of men away from "them." Here Jack identifies several kinds of Manhood - Simulated, Vicarious, Intellectualized, Metaphorical, and Ascetic. These are laid out, with good examples of each. All are decried as false manhood. Then Jack tries to define the role of man in the modern world and just seems to give up and call all men participating beyond the "gang mentality" weak, incompetent, afraid and not courageous and dishonorable. Every possible way for a man to be strong in the modern world is thoroughly deprecated. We are not given any way out of the dilemma. Then we get a discussion of the masturbatory society, including the Bonobo and Champanzee society comparison putting down nearly every aspect of civilization as destructive to "Manhood" and calling the potential answers all self indulgent masturbation. On the last pages we get the lame advice, "create proximity, Choose your "us," "Create Fraternity." I found the ending of the book disappointing as Jack closes with this advice "You need to learn how to read each other and work together as a group. Go to the shooting range. Go Hunting. Take a workshop. Learn a useful skill. Fix something. Build something. Get off you asses asses and do something." These are all more or less directly from his simulated and vicarious manhood discussions mentioned earlier. After dissing every thing from the Man's Movement and Men's Rights Movement to effeminacy, and decrying both simulated and vicarious manhood attempts, all we get is advice to do simulated and vicarious Manhood type things, earlier dismissed. I give the book three stars for the first section. I deducted two stars for the logic errors and weak ending. Men are searching how to be a Man in the modern world. This book did not help.

Simplified, Jack Donovan's book can be distilled down to two major points. The first half of the book explores the difference between being a good man and being good at being a man. When the circle of civilization is small, it is more important to be good at being a man and it is from these origins that manhood--in its most essential form--is derived. The author identifies four virtues that have defined masculinity and helped human civilization survive from its beginnings. Yes, he essentializes masculinity but whether or not you agree with the mutability of gender, it is hard to disagree with Donovan's argument that it is primarily men and their adoption of these virtues the world over that society has survived to the point that it has. The Way of Men has, historically, been the way of the gang and it is thanks to men and the "us versus them" outlook that has allowed us to thrive. While it is preferable to have good men, that "goodness" is for naught if men cannot implement violence in a way that allows them to master the world inside and outside of their circle. The latter chapters examine the motives of the ones who seek to redefine masculinity. This part of the book does get quite a bit more heated with language meant to inflame, but it is no thinly-veiled personal attack Donovan's intellectual enemies. Instead it is a call to action--a sort of window into our world of pointless modernity. The Bonobo Masturbation society as he calls it (and the title of the best chapter of the book) points out the fact that feminism's end-game (a movement that has been ironically co-opted by rich men) is primarily to make men and women replaceable cogs in a well-oiled and ultimately uncaring economic machine. In a feminized world, men have little to look forward to as society is stripped of challenge. At most, your future is filled with cheap sex and second-hand masculinity in the form of video games and sporting events. This Brave New World is fairly painless but offers little else other than implicit (or, worse, explicit) obedience to a corporatist and dehumanizing nation-state. I think Jack would agree with this sardonic quote from Dan Roodt: "The destiny of man is to be a shopper. Everything else is Nazism." If you don't believe the postmodern screed about the mutability of gender, this book will be your kick in the pants and inspire you to retake your rightful place in human endeavors. If you are of the feminist persuasion, read The Way of Men if only to show some intellectual honesty. Your "tolerance" will be served by entertaining the opposing viewpoint for a few pages and you'd be hard-pressed to find a more frank or straight-forward look at what it means to be a man.

Good treatise on Masculinity. However, the conclusion of the book is rather nihilistic in the options afforded humanity. Donovan sets his critique against globalist elite society being a result of feminization, which, is in part, true. But civilization is the goal of the kernel of the gang, which he himself professes. So, his personal thesis runs cyclical and falls flat in the end. Bottom line is with most of these books that are conservative in their bent and pro-masculine (which I personally agree with) and patriarchichal, if it doesn't point to a higher way of being, higher than base evolutionary mechanisms, it runs to nihilism. That's just the way it is. Dostoevsky nailed it in 1865 and it still rings true today. It's found among the left mostly, but, now also heavily influencing the right. Without a higher power / higher endeavor all this serves to promote is either hateful violence and/or despondency. Aim higher. Other than that, not terrible. I did give it 4 stars.

Great read and I’ll definitely read it again

Spot on

Donovan will give it to you directly without making anything sweeter than it is, but without making it saltier either. I believe negative reviews of this book to be linked with personal disregard of the concepts depicted rather than any actual fault with the content itself. Even if you disagree, it may at least widen your horizont of social dynamics and the purpose of male and female elements in nature. But I believe anyone could profit from reading this short-book at least once.

The book really resonated with me. Before I read it I had many thoughts on the subject, many similar to that of the author's. But it was all a chaos in my head. The Way of Man really helped me to sort out and put to words the thoughts that were troubling my head for a long while now. The Way of Man is certainly radical - in the best possible meaning of this word. Radical: not "extremist" but "fundamental". It answers all the questions about the essence of "being good at being a man" and "being a good man". It also takes shots at the modern world and modern "feminist" understanding of manliness. In my opinion The Way of Man is great book for all man, but especially young man like myself, who grew up in times of masculinity being dissuaded and regarded as evil. The book is written very well. It reads lightly even though English isn't my native language.

Jack Donovan's premises are two: first, that the natural way of men is as members of a gang, team or other male group; second, that this natural condition has been under attack for some time now, to the detriment of masculinity and male psychology. The first proposition I accept, despite growing up in conditions which left me with solitary and individualist tendencies which have never left me. When in late childhood I was able to join, not gangs but teams I grew, and my solitary tendencies became merely individualistic. Recently I was accused of being a lone wolf type, and to the accuser's surprise took that as a compliment. Jack does not deal with my sort, but it is a masculine trait, and I still see his point about men in groups. Jack Donovan's second premise, that masculinity is under attack, I thoroughly agree with. I also agree with his contention that if the attack is successful, western civilisation is in deep trouble. This is not merely a matter of defence against the current invasion, though that is important; it is also the necessity of elbowing aside the forces and people who are diluting, restricting and feminising the western male and making it harder for us to progress. Civilisations good and bad are built, maintained, defended and advanced by men. Destroy masculinity, and you destroy your civilisation; then see how you like it. I am not as young as I used to be. Jack Donovan presents an analysis which I was half way towards before reading the book, and I am going to make sure my grandsons also read it, and understand the argument, and how important it is. I am really pleased that some young men, and some young women, are seeing through the nonsense that has been debilitating the West for half a century, and that they are pushing back.