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Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs

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Nationally best-selling author ( The Tyranny of Big Tech ), constitutional lawyer, and U.S. senator for the state of Missouri argues that the character of men and the male virtue that goes along with it is a necessary ingredient to a functioning society and a healthy, free republic.

A free society that despises manhood will not remain free.

The American Founders believed that a republic depends on certain masculine virtues. Senator Josh Hawley thinks they were right. In a bold new book, he calls on American men to stand up and embrace their God-given responsibility as husbands, fathers, and citizens.

No republic has ever survived without men of character to defend what is just and true. Starting with the wisdom of the ancients, from the Greek and Roman philosophers to Jesus of Nazareth, and drawing on the lessons of American history, Hawley identifies the defining strengths of men, including responsibility, bravery, fidelity, and leadership.

As Theodore Roosevelt declared, the “very existence of the state depends on the character of its citizens…. I am for business. But I am for manhood first.” Hawley shows why the foolhardy assault on masculinity in education, the media, the workplace, and every level of government is an assault on freedom itself.

Practical, down to earth, and urgent, The Masculine Virtues America Needs is required reading for every American patriot.

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 16, 2023

102 people are currently reading
452 people want to read

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Josh Hawley

3 books23 followers

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5 stars
204 (36%)
4 stars
91 (16%)
3 stars
53 (9%)
2 stars
34 (6%)
1 star
173 (31%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
Profile Image for Jess.
328 reviews5 followers
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July 22, 2022
Manhood: man-hood noun 1. The act of raising a fist, while protected by barricades and Capitol police, to the treasonous masses you're attempting to fleece, then fleeing like Chicken Little when the same insurrectionists actually storm the Capitol building you're cowering in.

Not even Josh Hawley can embody his toxic ideal of masculinity. Sad.
4 reviews4 followers
July 23, 2022
Who would read a book about manhood but an utterly feckless, cowardly excuse of a human being. Real men have honor. Josh Hawley is a prideful, self-serving narcissist cosplaying being a man. He knows nothing about honor and bravery unless it coincides with making him look good.
33 reviews
July 23, 2022
How does a dude who runs away from the angry mob he helped create know anything about being a good human, much less “manhood.” Toxic masculinity isn’t equal to being a good man. Being a good man is being kind, loving, available, open, strong, treating others as equals…none of the attributes Hawley has ever publicly presented.
Profile Image for Mara Gold.
6 reviews18 followers
July 29, 2022
Not a review. Just came here to say there should be an option to check off “do not ever want to read.” The audacity of this man to come out with a book about “manhood.” That’s not any kind of man.
Profile Image for Tammy AZ.
296 reviews2 followers
July 25, 2022
This book has bestseller written all over it. Learn about manhood by a "man" who helps incite a mob and then runs like a little girl, a "man" who uses his sister's address to run for office representing a state in which he doesn't reside, a "man" who pretends he's just one of the little guys but graduated from both Harvard and Yale. Truly a load of bs from a con artist.
1 review
July 29, 2022
I hear they’re making the book out of glass, so it will be as fragile as his “masculinity.”
2 reviews
July 30, 2022
This is not a man, but a lap dog. Place a collar on him, watch him bark, he can even raise a paw! Such good training. He can even go on runs. It's a shame people in Missouri (a state he doesn't even live in) have to clean up after him and his owners after we vote him out.
2 reviews
August 5, 2022
The blurb says, "No republic has ever survived without men of character to defend what is just and true." What on earth does that have to do with Hawley? A book that doesn't need to be read.
1 review
July 26, 2022
I understand it has a terrific running program. But I also understand he's a lumberjack and he's OK.
1 review
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August 6, 2022
Manhood is a topic rarely discussed by people who are secure in their own.
Profile Image for Angie.
19 reviews4 followers
May 16, 2023
They had to use REAL BIG letters on the cover, because, you know, gotta compensate..
1 review
June 4, 2023
It’s saddening that most reviews I’ve read on either Goodreads or the Guardian has largely focused on one thing - ad hominem attacks (and I can tell most haven’t actually read the book).

Please evaluate a book based on words written on the page, not what your opinions are on the political leaning of the author. Feel free to criticise that elsewhere. This is a place for book reviews. Not a Buzzfeed comment section.

The book is a guide on how to be a loving husband, father, builder, warrior, priest and king - through a biblical lens.

It is a cutting, surgical piece on the status of ‘masculinity’ in the modern day. What does it mean to be a ‘man’? Whether or not you agree with him, it’s a (rare) perspective worth hearing.

The book focuses on themes of responsibility, meaning and sacrifice. To not focus on oneself but on the service of others. To eliminate ego and narcissism. To provide and protect others. To grow up and become a dependable individual.

Why just read what you agree with? Read both Adam Smith and Karl Marx and figure out what you think yourself. Same applies here. It is certainly worth reading.
Profile Image for Troy D.
Author 3 books41 followers
June 19, 2023
Ignore all the liberal harpies on here that didn’t read the book and are just here to bomb this book’s rating, this is a must read for all men struggling to find the path to manhood.

I grew up without my father, under a single-parent liberal mother, and food stamps/section 8/welfare.

Without a father, it is very hard for men to find their way in life, especially when the home is led by a woman.

Women do not operate the same way as men and society does not expect the same in them, so it is impossible for a woman to understand the trials and tribulations we men have to go through to survive in this world.

Senator Hawley attacks this problem with profound wisdom and provides the solution to our masculinity crisis so many of us men are experiencing.

This should be required reading for all men, young men in particular. Share this book with someone who is in need of a man’s guidance on how to become a man.

If you need that help on how to become a man, read this book today!

“The critical threshold marking the passage of boyhood to manhood was the point when the boy produces more than he consumes and gives more than he takes.” - Senator Josh Hawley, MANHOOD.
Profile Image for Stuart.
Author 7 books199 followers
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May 19, 2023
Fact: The rate of suicide for farmers is three and a half times higher than the general population, according to the National Rural Health Association. Construction and extraction blue collar workers have nearly twice the national average rate of suicide. Josh Hawley apparently doesn’t know this. Because in Manhood he opines that the key to getting away from all the problems in life is to get a real job working on a farm or working blue collar with your hands. Maybe Manhood is a euthanasia book masking as a self help book, who knows?

And does Hawley work with his hands? Hell no, he’s a metrosexual dressing (not that there is anything wrong with that!) senator. Was his father blue collar? Hell no, he was a banker. Hawley writing a self help guide for manly men, Manhood, is basically the equivalent of OJ Simpson writing a guide to being a great husband.

In Manhood, Hawley exhorts men to read the Bible and live like Adam. There was a comical book about doing this several years back, The Year of Living Biblically. It was a fun read. But Hawley isn’t trying to be funny, he’s trying to be serious.

Decades ago, Robert Bly, a good poet who needed cash, got into the con game of trying to get men to be smelly and grunt a lot. He wrote a bestselling book, Iron John, and ran expensive seminars. Bly's con game allowed him to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Manhood is a drearier version of Iron John. Hawley, too, is running a con game. He's a prep school kid cosplaying as a working stiff. Like Bly's con game, it's allowed Hawley to live a comfortable life as a senator.
Profile Image for Mary Clark.
1 review
May 16, 2023
I thought this was going to be a non fictional tale about Josh’s very small manhood, so small it created a fragile toxic ego that then help create a group of degenerate insurrectionist that he was ok to throw a fist at from across the street but ran like a coward when they came inside his house. Instead I got a fictional tale about a puppet with no manhood, who just wants to be a man so bad he decides to sell his soul in order to try to be one. This story has been done so often, but this one falls short of even the worst attempts.
Profile Image for June.
162 reviews3 followers
May 16, 2023
Manhood: Josh raised his fist in solidarity with the insurrectionists on January 6 than ran like a chicken through the halls to escape them.
1 review1 follower
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May 16, 2023
The cover alone would have left me sad for the main character in this story, but Josh is an unsympathetic character from the second you see the book. A seditionist by day, and a liar by night, it's clear from the title he's not living his truth; instead, Josh seems to be calling out for help. He's searching for his own manhood; the power and confidence to be real with all of us. What I got from the book--correction, cover--is that he's in search of his own manhood. These 'masculine virtues' that he believes America so needs is really Josh looking for his own masculine virtues. Here, he's wrapping himself in the American flag pretending to be the voice for all men, when really, he's a limp, flaccid excuse of a man, afraid of what the world will think of him, what they will do to him, that they won't like him when he reveals his truth. You don't have to go far into the book--I figured out Josh's journey from the very title--to realize that this book is Josh's way of telling the country, ne, the world, that he loves masculine men. Josh is not the masculine man he portends in this book, no, Josh fantasizes about being with masculine men. I gave this book one star for a number of reasons: 1. The story was unbelievable from the start. We know Josh is not a masculine man. 2. The cover alone reads like a Grindr profile lede. It seems forced. And finally, 3. The idea that a masculine man is the answer to the world's problems is farcicle. PASS.
Profile Image for Closeted Josh.
1 review
May 16, 2023
The bottom line message of the book is that Josh needs some serious help. Hawley's need for man-to-man love is palpable throughout the book, even as he rails against the gay community. It's really sad that Josh uses a book on "Manhood" to mask his preferences and to show how little of a person he is.
1 review
September 22, 2022
I’d just as soon read a book about masculinity written by Pee-wee Herman.

Never mind coifed, soft, seditionist Josh Hawley.
Profile Image for Jonathan.
Author 13 books10 followers
June 5, 2023
Masculinity is under attack in America. Left-wing liberalism has been attacking it for a while. If you show any manly or masculine traits in society, the only susceptible option is for you to deny your masculinity as a man or show more feminine attributes. Hawley writes to not only preserve masculine attributes, but to use them to save American culture and society, for the advancement of our country.

This is not a political book, but it does catch on some of America’s problems. Hawley identifies biblical masculine virtues lacking in America today. Men all over the world need these biblical virtues. As the men of America go, so does the country. We could blame America’s problems today on politician, state governments, political parties, and anyone else. But the author postulates that the men of America need biblical examples and standards to live by.

He weaves personal stories, historical examples, and statistics and current issue examples through biblical examples of manhood. He takes the virtues and character traits of men of the Bible and applies them to what men need today.

Hawley uses the templates of the lives of Adam, Abraham, Joshua, David, and Solomon to lay down the traits America’s men need today. As he talks about their place in biblical history, looking at their lives in-depth, he talks about the phases of life every man needs to go through to gain the character and wisdom of each step.

Men go from a husband and father like Adam and Abraham, a warrior like Joshua, and a builder and King like David and Solomon. A man learns godly wisdom and essential skills of each level. The husband learns to love his wife sacrificially.

The father learns how to mold his children for the glory of God. The warrior finds God the causes to live for and serve. The builder learns how to structure his life. The King realizes God’s plan for him to lead others. He builds a domain he can tame and lead.

A man needs to learn how to build God’s temple in his life. He must live in service to his Creator and build a life that leaves a legacy for the next generation. These character traits are essential within American men today, who are learning how to skate by in life instead of make that legacy. We see men doing the opposite, just getting by and not building a life that honors God.

This was a great read that encourages men to live up to their potential. I enjoyed the template of the husband, father, warrior, builder, and King. It gives direction to men and shows them their potential and God’s plan to make them who He wants them to be

These are desires we naturally have, but don’t know how to execute. Hawley’s book provides us with a way to do what our society denies men to do. We must be who God has made us to. If you need direction on the manly and godly traits of character in my life, this book will help you see the path of manhood you need to experience.
1 review
August 10, 2022
What worthless piece of garbage has the wherewithal to write about something he knows nothing about? It’s like a taxi driver writing about repairing goldfish bowls. This “girl” has zero manhood. His family calls him, “the little abortion that got away” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
1 review
May 20, 2023
I am astonished at the percentage of indoctrinated self-hating males who are living in herd mentality .... I say males because it is not obvious that these males are willing to be men; as for the females, they seem to be riding a narcissistic entitlement train ... being "powerful" through aggressive hate. Both these kind of people, with their respective mentalities, are assisting the hate filled globalist to destroy humanity ... and the destruction of humanity is the agenda of the NWO globalist.

I intend to read this book as I completely grasp that male-hood is under an unrelenting assault, that many men are confused and have no idea what it means to be a man ... and I am especially concerned for young boys.

Mothers bring children into life and into the family, Men bring children into the social life and society. A good father guides children into society .... I happen to have the good fortune to observe this in action; a grand-niece has been diligently coached by her dedicated father and is now no. 3 high school soccer player in N. Calif ... without his assistance and support, she would most likely just be another good player but nothing special.
Profile Image for Patrick.
1 review
August 5, 2022
Everything published by Regnery Publishing is quality, and I have no doubt that Josh Hawley's book will be a first rate example of literature that will stand the test of time. I think of my friend Josh as a combination of Adam Smith and the Terminator; maybe with a bit of Mohammad Ali mixed in as Josh is sublime.

Josh and I only wish we could have been successful on January 6th, as this would have amped up the level of manhood on display . We consider democracy to be overrated, and believe God has a much larger role to play in the lives of all Americans. God tells us what woman need to do with their bodies - and that is procreate in a way that can sustain Josh's illustrious political career.

Josh, brings to mind my other dear friend and role model - Jim Baker, who was married to the, insightful Tammy Faye. I am thrilled God asked him to write this book.

Bless you Josh. Bless you.
Profile Image for Barry.
1,237 reviews58 followers
June 28, 2025
All the one-star reviews are absurd. Each is a variation on “I don’t like this guy’s politics, therefore he must be a horrible person, and therefore nothing he says could possibly be of any value, and therefore everyone should avoid reading this book—just like I did.” It’s so sad that this is where we are now.
Profile Image for Ben.
80 reviews25 followers
September 3, 2023
First things first: the negative reviews on this site that Manhood has is the product of people who have two things in common: an irrational and uninformed dislike of Josh Hawley and perfect ignorance about this book's contents. (I might add that a third commonality seems to be that many of these reviewers are unhappy women, which adds a touch of irony to the whole spectacle.) It's unfortunate that in our digital age, small people have such intellectual dishonesty as to rate a book they haven't read, particularly when that book, if read with an open mind, might make them less small. But such are the personages produced by our increasingly silly society.

Now, as to the book itself, Hawley has produced an insightful response to the left's war on masculinity, a feat that is matched by his refusal to be sucked into a Nietzschean reaction to it, as too many anti-liberals today seem to do. The idiocies on gender that the left propagates are not corrected by resorting to idiocies in the opposite direction. As Hawley shows, they are best answered by remembering what manhood actually is by appealing to the fundamental first truths that have historically grounded our civilization.

Manhood is therefore unapologetically biblical, as Hawley shows different aspects of true masculinity (husband, father, warrior, builder, priest, king) through the stories of biblical figures. An essential truth that comes out of this approach is that true manhood is not the chest-thumping, go-get-what-you-want faux masculinity sold by online influencers. It, fundamentally, is a challenge to understand the state of the world and the responsibilities that God has given to men, and to use the strength that God offers to bring a semblance of order out of chaos. This, he rightly acknowledges, will not ultimately be accomplished perfectly by imperfect men, which is why God's promises of full restoration are ultimately fulfilled by the one perfect man, who is also fully God. Men, in the meantime, are meant to fulfill their duties to God, their families, and their communities, living their lives with purpose while we wait for the final consummation of history.

Manhood could be understood, then, as a kind of self-help book that seeks to give men, increasingly derided by social elites, direction. But it's decidedly not a self-help book in the sense that Hawley acknowledges the divine source of our duties and the power to execute them. This brings to manhood a sense of limitation, of using authority while being under authority, of strength under control - both self and divine control. Needless to say, none of this is going to be attractive to those who hate traditional masculinity, and wish to see it changed into something neutered (figuratively and, in many cases, literally).

These leftists, who control essentially all centers of power in society Hawley calls "Epicureans" or "Epicurean liberals," identifying modern liberalism with the ancient philosopher Epicurus who argued that the point of life was the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure. If there is a problem with the book, it is here, as Hawley places much too heavy a weight on Epicureanism as an explanation of modern problems. Certainly, Hawley is right that the modern world has pursued pleasure and self-definition as the highest goods to be secured by and for individuals, but this is something of an oversimplification of what Epicureanism, which argued for the pursuit of pleasure in moderation, actually was. Obviously, Epicureanism points man to the wrong solution for the human condition, but it wouldn't seem to be due the blame for the problems of the modern world. It would have been better, in my opinion, had Hawley just used the word "liberal" if he wanted to pinpoint the source of the problem, because all the negative features he identifies with Epicureanism are located in liberalism itself.

At any rate, this does not detract from the overall message of the book, or Hawley's execution of it. For people looking for a solution to leftist errors about gender and manhood that doesn't fly off into other errors in reaction, Hawley's book is a great place to start. The question is, how many people are truly after that kind of solution?
Profile Image for Kim.
1,101 reviews38 followers
May 19, 2023
Garbage and fantastical imagination from spineless chicken man josh.
We’ve all seen the awkward picture of you kissing your wife like she is your great aunt Myrtle. Lol
Profile Image for Steve Sleeves.
10 reviews
May 20, 2023
Don't bother reading this. It's excruciating from the start. Mumblings from a Cluster B personality type.
Profile Image for Caleb.
368 reviews37 followers
December 20, 2023
Part memoir. Part self-help. All hogwash. Hawley spends most the book forcing metaphors out of the Bible and following said Theology 099 explanations with foaming-at-the-mouth rants against "Epicureans" (his word for the dirtiest of people: liberals, specifically in America). I can't take anything Hawley says about the liberal elite in their ivory towers seriously when (1) he is an Ivy man through and through and (2) he used the word "cognoscenti" unironically. An epic fail. Taking away all the political claptrap, Hawley's overall point elucidates a real problem: young men are being lost in the shuffle. His answers to that issue, though, are terrible in reasoning and worse in conclusion—or lack thereof. One star.
1 review
May 16, 2023
Confucius says:
Man whose hand in pocket feel cocky, how is that possible with a sniveling lil bitch like him.
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