Book Review: Manhood in the Making – Cultural Concepts of Masculinity by David D. Gilmore

 

David D. Gilmore’s Manhood in the Making is one of those anthropological texts that liberals love to cite when they want to argue that masculinity is nothing more than a “social construct.” And they’re half right, Gilmore does argue that masculinity is constructed. But here’s the twist: in trying to demystify masculinity, Gilmore accidentally reaffirms why it’s essential.

The book surveys dozens of cultures, from Mediterranean honour societies to warrior tribes in Africa and New Guinea, to explore what it means to be a man across civilisations. The central thesis? Masculinity is earned. Unlike womanhood, which is often seen as a natural biological inevitability, manhood is something a male must achieve, usually through struggle, self-sacrifice, danger, and utility to the tribe.

And this is where Gilmore’s book becomes unintentionally damning to our modern Western society. The very cultures he surveys, which are often poor and “primitive” by globalist NGO standards, seem to understand something that the modern West has forgotten: that boys do not become men through feelings, therapy, or slogans. They become men through trial. They become men by fighting, hunting, protecting, building, by taking responsibility.

Every society Gilmore investigates builds masculinity around three recurring pillars:

1. Be strong

2. Provide for others

3. Protect the vulnerable

Compare that to our postmodern West, where men are told to be soft, stay safe, defer to others, and apologise for existing. Where masculinity is pathologised, not celebrated. Where schools drug boys for being energetic, universities shame men for being assertive, and HR departments punish them for being direct.

Gilmore, likely unintentionally, makes the case for a return to traditional masculinity. Not the cartoonish, insecure version the Left invents to make straw men out of strong men, but the real thing: honourable, stoic, fierce when needed, tender when earned.

And here’s the kicker. The societies that don’t have a coherent masculine code, those that don’t “make” manhood a rite of passage, tend to be unstable, dangerous, and disrespected even within their own cultures. When masculinity isn't forged, it's warped.

So while Gilmore’s academic tone pretends to be neutral, Manhood in the Making ends up offering a devastating indictment of modern liberal culture. In trying to show that masculinity varies across cultures, Gilmore actually reveals its deep, universal truths. Across time and geography, men are expected to earn their place. And when they don’t, societies fall.

If you're a man searching for clarity in a confused world, this book offers an anthropologist's map back to meaning. Just don’t expect Gilmore to draw the final conclusion for you. He lays out the evidence; it’s up to you to act like a man and draw the sword of truth yourself.

Verdict: A powerful case for earned masculinity, despite the author’s intentions. Read it, then reject the infantilising rot of the modern West.