Most modern men walk alone. Most of them cannot name a best friend. They do not know who they would call in a crisis. They have no one around them who challenges them and makes them better.
It is a plague in our time. Surveys confirm it. Medical studies confirm it. The male suicide rate confirms it.
What modern men have lost is the skill of teaming with other men to help each other achieve true manhood. It is a lost art. Stephen Mansfield’s Building Your Band of Brothers helps men master this art and reclaim the skills of building the team of brothers that leads to masculine success.
Mansfield is the author of the internationally acclaimed Mansfield’s Book of Manly Men, which has been much discussed in major media and which has formed the basis of men’s events around the world.
In this brief, inspiring guide, Mansfield explains the essential steps for building a noble team of men in pursuit of manly excellence. He insists that these steps are achievable by every man and that they will lead to fulfillment and fun that will last a lifetime.
A wise man once said, “No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him.” Stephen Mansfield believes this and is eager to help men get teamed, get whole, and get on being the best they can be.”
Stephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author and a popular speaker who is becoming one of the nation’s most respected voices on religion and American culture. He is also an activist in a variety of social causes.
Stephen was born in Georgia but grew up largely in Europe due to his father’s career as an officer in the United States Army. After a youth filled with sports, travel, and mischief, he was recruited to play college football but turned down the opportunity when a Christian conversion moved him to attend a leading Christian college.
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy and then moved to Texas where he pastored a church, completed two Master’s degrees, hosted a radio show and began acquiring a reputation as a popular speaker of both depth and humor. He moved to Tennessee in 1991 where he again pastored a church, did relief work among the Kurds in Northern Iraq, served as a political consultant, and completed a doctorate.
It was during this time that he also launched the writing career for which he has become internationally known. His first book on Winston Churchill was a Gold Medallion Award Finalist. He also wrote widely-acclaimed biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield as well as a number of other books on history and leadership. In 1997, the Governor of Tennessee commissioned Mansfield to write the official history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2002, Stephen left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture full-time. Not long afterward he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book also became a source for Oliver Stone’s internationally acclaimed film W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency.
This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following eight years. Stephen wrote The Faith of the American Soldier after being embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. He also wrote about the new Pope in Benedict XVI: His Life and Mission. His book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and was often a topic in major media during the presidential campaign of 2008. To answer the crumbling values of portions of corporate America, he wrote The Search for God and Guinness and soon found himself speaking to corporate gatherings around the world.
Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture—recently on topics like Sarah Palin, Oprah Winfrey and America’s generals—but beyond his writing career he has founded The Mansfield Group, a successful consulting and communications firm, as well as Chartwell Literary Group, a firm that creates and manages literary projects. Together with his wife, Beverly, Mansfield has created The Global Leadership Development Fund, a foundation that sponsors leadership training and networking around the world.
In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. He is often to be found addressing a university gathering, a corporate retreat or a fundraising banquet and stirring his audience with the humor and storytelling that have become his trademark.
Mansfield lives primarily in Nashville, Tennessee, with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer. For more information, log onto MansfieldGroup.com.
I had a chance to meet Stephen Mansfield at an event I helped organize last summer and he told many of us that this was the missing chapter to his book "Mansfield's Book of Manly Men." Having regaled men with tales of manhood from years past, what was left was to encourage them to find like minded men and to give them tips on precisely how. On this first goal, the book wins. It is a "why-to." But it falls down a bit on the "how-to" portion. It assumes at least some core nucleus of friends to then shape and prune into a true band of brothers, but there are plenty in our fragmented society who do not even have that core, and need some better places to start - be they meetup.com, their parish, or in classes.
Nevertheless it's a good short read (less than an hour, even for a slow reader) to spur the men in your life into action to build a truly close group of friends. Not just guys they get a drink with occasionally, but men with whom they can be vulnerable, share their weaknesses and victories, and grow as persons.
"We are called to more. We are called to a glorious purpose for every stage of our lives. The sixteen-year-old boy may have only half a bedroom, a rusty car, a job a the pizza place, a dating life, his schoolwork, and a few chores at home to be responsible for. Yet these things comprise his field. When he tends them well, to the glory of God and as wise and caring men advise him to do, good comes to him. He grows. He prospers. He moves eagerly to new fields with new responsibilities and new destined victories." (p. 44)
This is the good book to read for men. As much as possible, each man should have a group of trusted men to have accountability and to be on track of their purpose. We cannot fulfill our plans on our own. It will only accomplish if we work together as a team. There will always be a time when we cannot see our flaws but can be seen by one or more people we trust. It's indeed not good for a man to be alone and no man is an island. We are better together whatever it takes.
One of the key things I've noticed with my life and the lives of most of the men around me is that we do not build friendships as people used to. I am determined to change this, both for myself and my family. I want my sons to know what true friends looks like. The kind who will do whatever it takes to keep each other on track and accountable. This book is an excellent resource. It is a must have for any man.
Steven Mansfield knocks this topic out of the park! Unbelievable, precise words on what men need to establish great manhood in their lives. This book gives men a clear outline on what we've lost from our forefathers generations' accountability and responsibilities to one another, and then how to go about building that framework in our lives. A book I will encourage other men to read and be gifting to help spread the need for true manhood through a band of brothers in each of our lives.
Although it was a short read, I enjoyed the content and I enjoy Mansfield’s writing style...I listen to his podcast regularly and can hear his voice and speaking style in the writing. However, I think the book (Kindle edition) is overpriced for the length of the book...that’s the main reason behind the rather pedestrian rating.
This book was both thought provokingly and inspiring. It leaned more toward religious undertones than I expected but not so much to turn me off from the book entirely.
Small punch practical guide on building a gang of men who walk with you in Christian brotherhood. A great practical companion to Manfields Book of manly men.
This book offers a one of a kind guide to building your Band of Brothers. If you are looking for a book on how to build a group of people who genuinely cares and loves one another like David and Jonathan in the Bible, this book is for you. As the author forewarned, it will give you a sense of urgency for this book unveils the essential need of men to have his own Band of Brothers.
Good, but basic. Not that it's bad at all, but at least for me there's a lot of, "Well, yeah..." - not a lot of "oh, really? I never knew that." But, if the whole concept is new to you and you have trouble making connections with other men, then it's a good starting point.