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Man Out: Men on the Sidelines of American Life
The story of men who are hurting—and hurting America by their absence
Man Out describes the millions of men on the sidelines of life in the United States. Many of them have been pushed out of the mainstream because of an economy and society where the odds are stacked against them; others have chosen to be on the outskirts of twenty-first-century America. These men are disconnected from work, personal relationships, family and children, and civic and community life. They may be angry at government, employers, women, and "the system" in general—and millions of them have done time in prison and have cast aside many social norms.
Sadly, too many of these men are unsure what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Wives or partners reject them; children are estranged from them; and family, friends, and neighbors are embarrassed by them. Many have disappeared into a netherworld of drugs, alcohol, poor health, loneliness, misogyny, economic insecurity, online gaming, pornography, other off-the-grid corners of the internet, and a fantasy world of starting their own business or even writing the Great American novel.
Most of the men described in this book are poorly educated, with low incomes and often with very few prospects for rewarding employment. They are also disproportionately found among millennials, those over 50, and African American men. Increasingly, however, these lost men are discovered even in tony suburbs and throughout the nation. It is a myth that men on the outer corners of society are only lower-middle-class white men dislocated by technology and globalization.
Unlike those who primarily blame an unjust economy, government policies, or a culture sanctioning "laziness," Man Out explores the complex interplay between economics and culture. It rejects the politically charged dichotomy of seeing such men as either victims or culprits. These men are hurting, and in turn they are hurting families and hurting America. It is essential to address their problems.
Man Out draws on a wide range of data and existing research as well as interviews with several hundred men, women, and a wide variety of economists and other social scientists, social service providers and physicians, and with employers, through a national online survey and in-depth fieldwork in several communities.
Man Out describes the millions of men on the sidelines of life in the United States. Many of them have been pushed out of the mainstream because of an economy and society where the odds are stacked against them; others have chosen to be on the outskirts of twenty-first-century America. These men are disconnected from work, personal relationships, family and children, and civic and community life. They may be angry at government, employers, women, and "the system" in general—and millions of them have done time in prison and have cast aside many social norms.
Sadly, too many of these men are unsure what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Wives or partners reject them; children are estranged from them; and family, friends, and neighbors are embarrassed by them. Many have disappeared into a netherworld of drugs, alcohol, poor health, loneliness, misogyny, economic insecurity, online gaming, pornography, other off-the-grid corners of the internet, and a fantasy world of starting their own business or even writing the Great American novel.
Most of the men described in this book are poorly educated, with low incomes and often with very few prospects for rewarding employment. They are also disproportionately found among millennials, those over 50, and African American men. Increasingly, however, these lost men are discovered even in tony suburbs and throughout the nation. It is a myth that men on the outer corners of society are only lower-middle-class white men dislocated by technology and globalization.
Unlike those who primarily blame an unjust economy, government policies, or a culture sanctioning "laziness," Man Out explores the complex interplay between economics and culture. It rejects the politically charged dichotomy of seeing such men as either victims or culprits. These men are hurting, and in turn they are hurting families and hurting America. It is essential to address their problems.
Man Out draws on a wide range of data and existing research as well as interviews with several hundred men, women, and a wide variety of economists and other social scientists, social service providers and physicians, and with employers, through a national online survey and in-depth fieldwork in several communities.
- GenresNonfictionPolitics
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2018
23 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 28, 2018
I couldn't wait to read this book, having noticed and personally experienced the cultural phenomenon that is Man Out. This book was packed full of insightful statistics, but I was left wanting more from an anecdotal standpoint. A few men's situations were briefly described, but not nearly in the detail I was looking for.
February 16, 2021
Let's cut to the chase here (as they used to say, I think, in the 1980s): The fact is, there aren't that many books in this category. As we all know, former Clark University philosophy professor Christina Hoff Sommers started it all with her seminal book, The War on Boys (2000), which received high praise from the right and mixed reviews (to put it mildly) from the left.
As it says in wikipedia, "Reviewing the book for The New Yorker, Nicholas Lemann wrote that Sommers 'sets the research bar considerably higher for the people she is attacking than she does for herself," using an "odd, ambushing style of refutation, in which she demands that data be provided to her and questions answered, and then, when the flummoxed person on the other end of the line stammers helplessly, triumphantly reports that she got 'em.'"
And "Writing in The Washington Post, E. Anthony Rotundo stated that 'in the end, Sommers ... does not show that there is a 'war against boys.' All she can show is that feminists are attacking her 'boys-will-be-boys' concept of boyhood, just as she attacks their more flexible notion." Sommers's title, according to Rotundo, "is not just wrong but inexcusably misleading... a work of neither dispassionate social science nor reflective scholarship; it is a conservative polemic.'"
The book had its faults, but to say that its title is "not just wrong but inexcuseably misleading..." is in itself inexcusable, but that's the reaction you'll receive (certainly from the left) when you write a book that tells the truth in a nation that has forgotten what the truth looks like (if you'll pardon the hyperbolic phrasing there).
Now we have Andrew Yarrow's Man Out: Men on the Sidelines of American Life (2018).
Let me be brief:
Perhaps the most surprising (or, at the same time, unsurprising) aspect of its publication is how little press attention it received. I have searched for an interview with the author, and can find only one television interview -- on Tucker Carlson Tonight, in which the host correctly points out that Yarrow has enough left-wing credentials to ward off any criticism from that side of the political spectrum.
See the interview here: https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/me...
And, in fact, that's true -- if there were any criticism on display. But what's happened is that the book has been largely ignored. As Yarrow said in that interview, "Well, it's interesting. Conservative media have tended to like it more. It's...y'know, it's kind of troubling. This should be a bipartisan issue..."
True enough. It is an indictment of the existing cultural narrative (dominant in the United States since 1970 -- and by the way, isn't that more than 50 years now...?) that the message of this book cannot get a proper hearing in the marketplace of ideas.
March 24, 2020
A somewhat biased take on men's issues
The author does well to explain the plague inflicting men in this modern society. He tries to remain unbiased explaining issues from both sides of the spectrum, but slips progressive talking points in there as if they are truths. Russian meddling, toxic masculinity are examples. The solutions to men's issues, are of course, very liberal, universal income, and other progressive ideas. Overall, the book isn't bad, it's interesting, but kind of falls short at the end.
The author does well to explain the plague inflicting men in this modern society. He tries to remain unbiased explaining issues from both sides of the spectrum, but slips progressive talking points in there as if they are truths. Russian meddling, toxic masculinity are examples. The solutions to men's issues, are of course, very liberal, universal income, and other progressive ideas. Overall, the book isn't bad, it's interesting, but kind of falls short at the end.
April 19, 2023
This book is just bad
From its lackluster analysis of where men have gone on the labor force to its use of anecdote I dread of facts, to its constant refusal to admit that policy decisions have affected our lives, this book is just an awful read. If you have just been watching the news for the past few years you'll get everything this book has to say but you'll have saved yourself some eye rolls.
From its lackluster analysis of where men have gone on the labor force to its use of anecdote I dread of facts, to its constant refusal to admit that policy decisions have affected our lives, this book is just an awful read. If you have just been watching the news for the past few years you'll get everything this book has to say but you'll have saved yourself some eye rolls.
June 24, 2020
An excellent look into the struggles more and more men are facing. Economic and social issues are causing more and more men to bail out of society, fail economically, never start a family and so on. This book sheds light on a population demographic often overlooked and I praise the author for the meticulous amount of statistics presented.
December 6, 2020
Is there a place for Men here in the feminized intellectual virtual future? The world's environment would seem to give an emphatic no: Testosterone levels dropping, sperm counts cratering, and indices of economic health quavering at each day's next revelation, not to mention deaths and suicides. My first incomplete exposure to Man Out was in 2018, with its compelling thesis: men are dropping out and are missing from the society. The weight of Governmental choices weighed unequally on members of society and that caused severe repercussions. But here in 2020 at the finish how could this novel(-ish) concept feel so dated and small? Swallowed almost whole by the events of the Employment boom of '19 and the Covid Crash of '20.
Perhaps the answer is merely that it is hard to be a Man? Our Hobbsian existence in life is pithily described as "where every man is Enemy to every man ... continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." As a Man cannot count on anyone to feed you, and the world will not long, if at all, mourn your passing. But instead of recoiling in horror from this understanding, I counter with Epiphany.
Feed yourself, and you can always chose to feed others. Stand on your own two feet, and you can always help others to rise. Give thanks to being Created with the spark of life, and the opportunity to chose to rule yourself and Chose the Way. Know the Truth and it will set you free, because no one else will.
Perhaps the answer is merely that it is hard to be a Man? Our Hobbsian existence in life is pithily described as "where every man is Enemy to every man ... continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short." As a Man cannot count on anyone to feed you, and the world will not long, if at all, mourn your passing. But instead of recoiling in horror from this understanding, I counter with Epiphany.
Feed yourself, and you can always chose to feed others. Stand on your own two feet, and you can always help others to rise. Give thanks to being Created with the spark of life, and the opportunity to chose to rule yourself and Chose the Way. Know the Truth and it will set you free, because no one else will.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews