Angry White Men

American Masculinity at the End of an Era

By: Michael Kimmel

Narrated by: Aaron Williamson

One of the enduring legacies of the 2012 Presidential campaign was the demise of the white American male voter as a dominant force in the political landscape. On election night, after Obama was announced the winner, a distressed Bill O'Reilly lamented that he didn't live in "a traditional America anymore". He was joined by others who bellowed their grief on the talk radio airwaves, the traditional redoubt of angry white men. Why were they so angry?

Sociologist Michael Kimmel, one of the leading writers on men and masculinity in the world today, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men in pursuit of an answer. Kimmel locates this increase in anger in the seismic economic, social, and political shifts that have so transformed the American landscape. Downward mobility, increased racial and gender equality, and a tenacious clinging to an anachronistic ideology of masculinity has left many men feeling betrayed and bewildered.

Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic privilege, white men are suffering today from what Kimmel calls "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them.

©2013 Michael Kimmel (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Kimmel's writing is open and engaging, reminiscent of a conversation with friends in a bar...Another worthwhile examination of important issues affecting men and, by extension, everyone else, from an author known for his insight into the subject." ( Kirkus)

Would Not Recommend

I thought the author was engaging, but ultimately provided a very narrow perspective. I thought his claims were too generalized and did not provide enough statistical backing. Though there are men that hold these absurd viewpoints, how many American men? I also thought that the author failed to address some of the other theoretical underpinnings of why events such as school shootings occur. The masculinity hypothesis was given too much emphasis when there may be other factors at play. Overall, I would not recommend this book because I think it relies too much on personal narratives rather than statistical data and fails to analyze problems from different perspectives.

Most important...

This is a profoundly important book...read it. Our democracy and the ties that bind us as a community and country depend on it.

insightful and inform

I've long tried to understand this perspective. although I still vehemently disagree with the perspectives held by the subjects interviewed I feel I at least have a better understanding of their plight

I get it now!

This is an exceptionally informative book for me. I've been wondering what my friends, neighbors and father are so worked up about. I don't wonder anymore why my neighbor flies a confederate flag, or why our current president was elected.
First off, this is not a book telling you what to think about this topic. Kimmel is a sociologist. In this book he recounts interviews, and synthesizes data from many sources.
The narrator is not my favorite. He's got a "radio" voice, but I quickly got over that. I'd say I'm pretty picky when it comes to narrators. I've returned books because of this.

Interesting book; Wrong reader

This is an interesting sociological study of the rise of cohorts of "angry white men" (white nationalists, father's rights groups, etc.) that helped catapult Trump into power. Unfortunately, the reader is poorly chosen. The voice is more appropriate for an action movie trailer (hyper masculine; super exaggerated) than for a book that offers a sensitive, nuanced look at issues of aggression, entitlement and race. If I were the author of this book, I'd be crazy if I heard this.