What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be manly? How has our notion of masculinity changed over the years? In this book, noted historian George L. Mosse provides the first historical account of the masculine stereotype in modern Western culture, tracing the evolution of the idea of manliness to reveal how it came to embody physical beauty, courage, moral restraint, and a strong will. This stereotype, he finds, originated in the tumultuous changes of the eighteenth century, as Europe's dominant aristocrats grudgingly yielded to the rise of the professional, bureaucratic, and commercial middle classes. Mosse reveals how the new bourgeoisie, faced with a bewildering, rapidly industrialized world, latched onto the knightly ideal of chivalry. He also shows how the rise of universal conscription created a "soldierly man" as an ideal type. In bringing his examination up to the present, Mosse studies the key historical roles of the so-called "fairer sex" (women) and "unmanly men" (Jews and homosexuals) in defining and maintaining the male stereotype, and considers the possible erosion of that stereotype in our own time.

\"In The Image of Man [Mosse] has produced a cogent, concise, and useful work that explores the historical development of contemporary masculinity....[The book is] both an insightful historical inquiry and a cautionary tale.\"--Michael Kimmel, San Francisco Chronicle

"In a work combining synthesis and suggestion, Mosse boldly explores representations of manhood in Europe and...in the United States since the mid-eighteenth century....Mosse's reading of manhood is that great thing, a short book which provokes a long think."--Roy Porter, The New Republic

\"A provocative, insightful analysis.\"--Booklist

"[Mosse] makes a cogent case for the simultaneity of the rise of the bourgeoisie with the rise of the modern image of man, and hence the bourgeois nature of masculinity....[This book's] plethora of facts concerning modern European masculinity and male homosexuality will bolster the analyses of future writers. In particular, the book offers considerable insight into the contributions of German culture to Western constructions of sexuality and gender."--Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter

"Mosse...has immeasurably strengthened the position of those who believe that masculinity is socially constructed by showing who constructed it and how. His notion of the transcendent power of a visual symbol--a particular 'image of man'--is original and ingenious; he may well be right."--Journal of American History