Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era Hardcover – November 5, 2013
Robert Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party
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 from white supremacists to men's rights activists to young students in pursuit of an answer. Angry White Men presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.
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.
Angry White Men discusses, among others, the sons of small town America, scarred by underemployment and wage stagnation. When America's white men feel they've lived their lives the right' way worked hard and stayed out of trouble and still do not get economic rewards, then they have to blame somebody else. Even more terrifying is the phenomenon of angry young boys. School shootings in the United States are not just the work of misguided youth” or troubled teens”they're all committed by boys. These alienated young men are transformed into mass murderers by a sense that using violence against others is their right.
The future of America is more inclusive and diverse. The choice for angry white men is not whether or not they can stem the tide of history: they cannot. Their choice is whether or not they will be dragged kicking and screaming into that inevitable future, or whether they will walk openly and honorably far happier and healthier incidentally alongside those they've spent so long trying to exclude.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNation Books
- Publication dateNovember 5, 2013
- Dimensions6.75 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches
- ISBN-101568586965
- ISBN-13978-1568586960
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Similar items that ship from close to you
Manhood in America: A Cultural HistoryPaperback$9.89 shippingGet it as soon as Monday, Jan 20Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
Katha Pollitt, columnist for The Nation
Michael Kimmel has written a comprehensive study of working and middle-class white men and described their collective grievances with insight and compassion. In regard to those among them who ally with the Far Right, he is equally insightful but justifiably more critical; his analysis of their misdirected rage at minorities and women is entirely persuasive. I enthusiastically recommend Angry White Men to the wide readership it has amply earned.”
Martin Duberman, professor of history emeritus at the Graduate School of the City University of New York
"[Angry White Men] delivers... a lively, frequently scary look at a group of people who are trying, ever more desperately, to hang onto a world that no longer exists."
Booklist
"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 Reviews
Being white and male has brought unfair power for so long that some think it's natural, both among those claiming it and those suffering from it. Michael Kimmel has done us the life-saving favor of naming this delusion that may endanger us more than any other. From executives for whom no amount of money is enough to white supremacists for whom no amount of power is enough, from U.S. wars in which men die to U.S. domestic violence in which even more women die, this illness is lethal for us all. Angry White Men is a brave, sane, compassionate, and rescuing book.”
Gloria Steinem, feminist activist and author
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Nation Books; 1st edition (November 5, 2013)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1568586965
- ISBN-13 : 978-1568586960
- Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,136 in Men's Gender Studies
- #2,248 in Violence in Society (Books)
- #3,255 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book provides interesting and thought-provoking information on the subject. They describe it as an easy, helpful read with clear explanations. Many praise the author's writing style and consider it a worthwhile read. However, some readers feel the book lacks new ideas and is boring.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book provides interesting and thought-provoking information on the subject. It combines scholarly data with investigative reportage to explain and document what makes people angry. The author expresses his thoughts and ideas clearly, and provides ample supporting references.
"...Kimmel combines scholarly data with investigative reportage to help explain and document just what makes the lower-middle-class, largely white,..." Read more
"The view of angry white men is put together, along with considerable supporting references, that explains many reactions we see in the news and..." Read more
"...a bit repetitive, but overall I think it was a strong contribution to the study of masculinity, which is under examined...." Read more
"...So much for clarity, brevity and style. This book is a waste of time. The author brings nothing new to the table...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and a valuable resource. They describe it as an interesting read on angry white males. The author's style is engaging and intelligent.
"...Kimmel's book is a great resource for people who want to try to understand what is making people so angry about politics... and who are already..." Read more
"Excellent book! Well worth your time...." Read more
"I very much enjoyed reading this book. Kimmel writes extremely well. He keeps his narrative and analyses moving along...." Read more
"...The book was helpful to read and easy to summarize when answering questions from my college professor. From my perspective, it wasn’t pricy." Read more
Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the author's explanations and framework that explains current cultural reactions.
"I very much enjoyed reading this book. Kimmel writes extremely well. He keeps his narrative and analyses moving along...." Read more
"It is an easy read (i.e. Kimmel expresses his thoughts and ideas clearly, even if the ideas themselves are not very easy ones to grasp at first)...." Read more
"Kimmel is an excellent writer and his style is intelligent and engaging. Not only does he explain why men are so angry, but he submits solutions...." Read more
"...I found this to be an incredibly valuable book. The author is a great writer and presents the information very well." Read more
Customers find the book a waste of time. They say it's boring, repetitive, and poorly written.
"...off OK, but very quickly it becomes a very opinionated rant that gets very boring. Lacks facts, has opinion and accusations in abundance...." Read more
"...He spends an inordinate amount of time and useless verbiage going through one bad idea after the other explaining the beliefs of insignificant..." Read more
"...fascinating book is poorly written and reads like a series of ill-prepared classroom lectures...." Read more
"Really fascinating but repetitive...." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2016This is one of the best resources to explain the intense anger and frustration that has propelled Donald Trump's race to the top of the GOP. Kimmel combines scholarly data with investigative reportage to help explain and document just what makes the lower-middle-class, largely white, center-right voting bloc tick.
The book was actually published before the current Presidential race, and in some ways that's actually a strength-- it talks about poor white Americans wrestling with "Aggrieved Entitlement" and Male Rage. Reasonable people can quibble over Kimmel's terminology, but his arguments go a long way towards explaining the phenomenon of how a candidate like Trump, who among other things is such a terrible spokesperson for ideological conservatism, has been able to garner so much support. Chauvinism? Race-baiting? Economic victimhood? It's all here.
One of the things I really appreciated about this book was that Kimmel tries to take an even tack: he not only calls out the subjects of his book for their logical fallacies and bad arguments, but also empathizes with how angry and frustrated they must be-- sometimes, with good reason. And he also points out ways in which their voices and problems have been ignored or exploited by pundits and politicians-- on both the left and the right.
Kimmel's book is a great resource for people who want to try to understand what is making people so angry about politics... and who are already thinking ahead to the day after the election, when regardless of who wins the White House, the rest of us are going to have to figure out how to talk to each other again and move forward.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2015Excellent book! Well worth your time. The rating is lower from certain groups hate-bombing anything that doesn't serve their purpose with their one-sided, predictable, and rote talking points. Many of which have nothing to do with women, but have to do with norms other MEN have set up in society, but as usual, that escapes them in their quest for scapegoats.
Any way you slice and dice it, the book is about a segment of society that, despite the writing on the wall for decades, assumed and expected that they would continue to be given preferential treatment based on their skin color and gender only to wake up one day and discover that not only had the world changed, but that they couldn't compete unless the deck was artificially stacked in their favor. Then they head for the polls and overwhelmingly vote for the people who not only sent many of their jobs overseas, but became even richer for doing so. Now they're circling the wagons to throw immigrants out, oppress minorities, and chain women back to the home in the hopes that the good old days will return in which they can count on a high paying job right out of high school without college, and given priority for everything just for being the "right" gender and color.
The end.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2014The view of angry white men is put together, along with considerable supporting references, that explains many reactions we see in the news and political arena. In one sense, nothing new--20 years ago, a professor told me she saw, from her consulting with businesses about gender discrimination and testifying in court-cases, that push-back from white males is to be expected, as the assumptions about power in our culture are changing. Kimmel ties a lot of aspects of this together by using the framework of angry white men.
- Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2016Through the lens Kimmel offers, you can see the tide of populism and the rise of Trump, the increase in mass shootings, and the stubbornly high rates of sexual assault all have a common underlying theme -- male entitlement and the very real pain/anger these men feel in not getting "what they deserve." Kimmel does a good job with being fair to the very real struggles these men are facing, offering compassion for the state these men often find themselves in, while still critiquing the culture that created such an angry and dangerous sense of entitlement. As others have noted, he does get a bit repetitive, but overall I think it was a strong contribution to the study of masculinity, which is under examined.
Very thoughtful and timely book that isn't nearly as inflammatory as the angry commentators would have you believe. Clearly many haven't read the book, but as someone who has, I would recommend it.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2016I very much enjoyed reading this book. Kimmel writes extremely well. He keeps his narrative and analyses moving along. The book is not highly theoretical sociology, but does bring an accomplished sociological eye to the world it addresses. Written more than three years before the 2016 Presidential election, the book could have been a primer for how to connect with many white male voters in America and perhaps elsewhere. Being a college professor and researcher, I would have liked more discussion of field methods and experiences. Taking in some of the data from white supremacist web sites and chat rooms must have been disturbing at times.
Top reviews from other countries
-
Yves Van HerstraetenReviewed in France on March 27, 20214.0 out of 5 stars Un peu de retard ...
La date de livraison était prévue entre le 18 et le 24/03/21
Réponse rapide du vendeur quand je me suis inquiété du retard de livraison.
Colis arrivé le 26/03
Article conforme à la description.
Merci!
La date de livraison était prévue entre le 18 et le 24/03/214.0 out of 5 stars Un peu de retard ...
Yves Van Herstraeten
Reviewed in France on March 27, 2021
Réponse rapide du vendeur quand je me suis inquiété du retard de livraison.
Colis arrivé le 26/03
Article conforme à la description.
Merci!
Images in this review
-
VReviewed in Italy on September 17, 20205.0 out of 5 stars libro
articolo arrivato per tempo, corrisponde alla descrizione
-
Juliana MirandaReviewed in Brazil on June 12, 20185.0 out of 5 stars Atual
Excelente livro. Procurei o livro depois de assistir a uma entrevista desse autor na TV. Traz temas atuais e faz uma analise profunda na sociedade branca americana. O livro foi escrito antes da era Trump. Torna fácil entender o apoio do voto republicano a Trump dps dessa leitura. Leia com calma.
Charlene ParkerReviewed in Canada on November 16, 20175.0 out of 5 stars I highly recommend it.
A very insightful book! Well written. I highly recommend it.
Sarah MReviewed in Germany on March 1, 20195.0 out of 5 stars Michael Kimmel - My second favourite sociologist
I really love Kimmel's work. If you have an interest in sociology, masculinity, and why things are the way they are today, I cannot recommend his work highly enough. Thought provoking, gripping, and told in a way that strikes the balance between academic and conversational.





