The blueprint of the American man has always been a rough document, drawn and redrawn to meet the demands of the day. It's also been different for different people (though the mainstream is mostly white and straight). Yet it's possible, as the historical sociologist Michael Kimmel has done, to trace a single evolving ideal that, for better or worse, has run through the country. Some highlights from that history, based on Kimmel's standard-bearing work, Manhood in America.
