Taking the Measure of Man

Sometimes, a book manages to impress simply by exceeding low expectations. Senator Josh Hawley’s Manhood was, for me, such a book. I flipped the front cover bracing myself for tendentious diatribes against feminism and bitter rants about dissolute “elites” but to my surprise, the word “feminism” did not even appear in the index. The rants were relatively few and restrained. Manhood is clearly a politician’s book, not a book book, but I struggled to work up much indignation about this cozy little serving of chicken soup for the masculine soul.