Languishing as an adjunct English professor at a small college in Pennsylvania, Jonathan Gottschall undergoes an existential crisis and wants to confront some demons regarding his masculinity, so he embarks on a 15-month MMA journey, training for a cage fight, and meditating on the nature of masculinity, courage, and violence. Gottschall looks at team sports and individual sports in the context of our domination-violent genes, examines our painful world history of sadism and gleeful violence and connects us to the apes who use ritualized violence to establish hierarchies. All of this is done within the discussion of MMA fighting. The analysis is sharp and reminds me of the writings of Sam Harris, and I mean this in a good way. Fast-paced, trenchant, and unflinchingly honest, the prose here provides one of the best discussions of masculinity and our rituals to assert it. Highly recommended.

Animals fight; humans fight, too. Women fight; men fight, too. But men are more likely to fight physically and frequently. Some might say men are just asinine in so doing and men ought to be civilized. Jonathan Gotschall, an English professor, argues that men are the way they are owing to many reasons. Better yet, he places himself in the middle of fights to find out why men fight even if death might result. Gottschall had been a wimp, not being able to stand up for himself all his life. He decided to learn MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) to fight for the first time in his life. He states that he had gotten himself in MMA because he wanted to write this book. After having been "food" to other stronger men, the desire to feel like a "man" must have rendered his desire to take up MMA.

Gottschall starts the first chapter detailing a duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aron Burr who were respectively the secretary of treasury and the vice president of the United States of America. The duel was over rumors against Aron Burr. The author brings up a propositional question: Why did the two men have to kill each other over petulant and chagrining words? Withal, could they have resolved the conflict in a peaceful manner? The author points out that there was none other way at that time because what the men fought for were not just humiliating words, but respect. In Men's World, respect means a lot more than just respect. Men fight for respect like animals do. Animals fight for food, sex, territory, and protection, all of which mean life and death. For men, respect is life and death. When a man loses respect from other men, it meant just more than being looked down. Money, women, social status, business, power -- life and death likewise --depended on one's respect at those epoch. This principle still applies to the modern world, by virtue of stable civilized government systems, these extreme duel disappeared. De facto Duel in different form, however, still exists in somewhat uncivilized world of prison. Much violent fighting occurs over a stolen banana. They were not fighting for banana; they fight for respect. Once you let somebody steal your banana, people will pilfer you of your food, money, and rape you in the end. Either you become their food or another "man."

Gottischall renders a scientific and well researched statement and kick feminism right in the face. Providing a good number of researches and studies, the author adduce that what masculinity is and argues how masculinity has developed in human. he explains that the masculinity is developed because there were less females and more males. Thus, males compete for reproduction by fighting. Females will be successful in producing offspring without competition or fighting. Risk taking inklings, aggression, competitiveness in males are not invented, rather they have naturally grown in males and because the definitions of masculinity.
"Masculinity is not a cultural invention. It is not the result of a conspiracy by men against women. It is a real thing that has evolved over millions of years as a response to the built-in competitive realities of male life."

Gottschall delves into other psychological, anthropological, biological arguments throughout the book regarding masculinity, fighting, sports, even war throughout the book. The rest of the chapters are well imparting and very educational. His researches culminate in converging with his own anecdotes in fights in later chapters. Gottschall finishes the book by concluding that men fight because fights make men feel great and alive. As Mike Tyson put it, in his bluntly eloquent way, “other than boxing, everything else is so boring.” Maybe, men fight because men have been fighting in the entire existing epochs, and generations after generations while evolving. Fighting must be deeply rooted in men's DNA. It is very recently that men are prohibited from fights. School teachers punish boys for fighting; Cops either break up fights or place the fighting citizens in jails; people recommend for psych evaluation for anger management for aggressive men. Men's instincts are suppressed. Maybe that is why men feel joy when they fight like how their ancestors did all these years.

I haven't quite finished yet, but I felt compelled to write a review. This book has successfully combined elements of biography, history, sports, psychology and sociology into an entertaining, thought-provoking and in depth study of man-to-man combat across time and cultures. I'm really pleasantly surprised to have come across it. It addresses (and also conjures more) questions that I have had on masculinity, violence, and courage. Honestly, these have all been areas I've struggled with for most of my life: what it means to be a man, bullying, self-defense, honor/respect, etc. Dr Gotschall present himself as a very relatable (and inspirational) man, and I appreciate that. After all, it takes guts to go from writing and lecturing to ground-and-pound.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in human nature, masculinity, fighting, sociology or psychology. I look forward to finishing the book soon, and I hope that I can one day weave together art, literature and science as effectively as he has.

Spectators or combat sports or team based contests owe gratitude to the combatants. Because whether they are Roman gladiators, rugby players, boxers, or MMA fighters, those combatants satisfy our blood lust as we gaze from a safe perch while they take the blows. We owe the author of A Professor in a Cage an additional debt. Sharing his journey in training as an MMA fighter provides us with so much more than a witness to bodily mayhem. The author has provided a thorough analysis of violence along gender lines, animal species, and human civilization. Thankfully it was a professor of English that decided to place his body in harm's way and reluctantly harm others as an MMA fighter. Other fighters and authors would be hard pressed to provide a history of violence as well nuanced as this book. I always suspected humans have much in common with animals in the wild, but I could never hope to piece together such a convincing argument.

Research shows that men are drawn to violence, be it the criminal or sporting kind. Why is that? In The Professor in the Cage, english professor Jonathan Gottschall takes us on a personal as well as interdisciplinary tour to answer that question. Using his experience training to be an MMA fighter, as well as looking to research from biology, anthropology, and sociology, Gottschall argues that men are both made and conditioned to fight. We’ve got a fighting spirit inside of us that can be used for good or evil — simply depending on how this energy is directed. Gottschall does a great job tying together all the research about manhood and the male fighting instinct in an accessible, enlightening, and entertaining read.