This compilation of interviews focuses on several related themes:

At the dawn of the new millennium, a young adult American male is often conflicted and lacks a clear focus. Thrust into a world without heroes or positive role models, he is frequently the product of an upbringing in which both parents worked outside the home or were divorced. He receives contradictory messages about the concepts of sexuality, maleness, sensitivity, male bonding, or relationships with women. Consequently, many of them feel a sense of alienation, estrangement, and loneliness as they forge their way into the expectations of the adult world.

In these candid conversations with 16 such young men, stories emerged about their individual fears, frustrations, successes, failures, and hopes or dreams in a post-“women’s liberation” era. The subjects ranged in age between 21 and 31 years and were from numerous and varied walks of life, educational backgrounds, and work experience.

With their anonymity guaranteed (both during the one-on-one audio-taped interviews and in print), they openly discussed their initiation into sexual experience as well as their successes and failures in sexual or other interpersonal relationships during adolescence and young adulthood. Five of the interviewees identified themselves as homosexual or bisexual.

Each taped interview lasted between three and four hours and was subsequently transcribed and edited for clarity and conciseness. In true “oral history” tradition, each interviewee’s words are presented in a dialogue format rather than narrative form. Due to space limitations, the 16 commentaries included here were selected from the 30 initial interviews conducted in order to present a cross-section of viewpoints and experiences.

This book is valuable to parents, teachers, and others who work with young people. In addition, teenagers and young adults of both sexes will also find the interviewees’ stories informative and reassuring relative to their own experiences. Growing Up Male in America is also an excellent supplementary text for courses in men’s or women’s studies at the university level.

Published/copyright © 2002
Paperback (395 pages)
ISBN 0-9704064-0-1
$24.95