Customer Reviews
Scratching the surface... 
2007-06-18
I gave this book one star simply because I have not read it yet, but I have ordered it and can't wait to read it cover to cover. I am a father of two daughters ages 7 and 13 and we have lived outside of the US for many years so I can't really say that I know what's going on in our society from the 'parent of boys' POV but I do think this is a timely topic which needs more exposure and discussion. Parents don't be silent! Stand up for your boys since they cannot fight for themselves without being labeled as a "problem".
I can tell you that I am an 18-year military veteran and the same anti-male attitudes described by the author and most of the reviwers here have woven their way into America's armed forces. If you know a male friend or family member who has been in the military for 5-10 years or more ask them and they will confirm what I am saying. What was up until very recently the final holdout of the uber-male machismo stereotype (once a neccesary and preferred trait in traditional combat roles but now deemed unecessary in our tech-war scenarios) has been replaced by a brady bunch version of itself due to our sycophantic military brass and their cowering civilian policymakers caving in to the ultra-feminist-PC male bashing movement. How can we give a guy a gun to "kill the enemy" and sensitivity training about cultural, gender and sociological roles at the same time???? Talk about a paradox!
So sadly, the old cliche about "join the military-it'll make a man out of you" just does not apply in today's sissified, hyper-sensitive summer camp edition of the armed forces. Just wanted to let everyone know that Public School is not the only government institution that is shortchanging and marginalizing boys and men in the 21st century. I'm glad I'm retiring before the next big war.
This is an excellent book, all the "progressive" educators should read it 
2007-05-19
Actually I read this book over a year ago, but was recently promted to write a review, after having read some biased (against boys) statements in a couple other recent books (like David Denby's "Greatbooks").
Hoff-Sommers makes an excellent argument for the case, that we need to rethink the way we are "educating" the boys in our primary and secondary schools. It is easy to spew forth truisms like "boys need recess", as some authors do, but Sommers goes into a great amount of detail and fact-finding, to show basically that the branch of feminism which I call "ideological" is largely responsible for the decay of boys' education, and of boys in general. The book has the added benefit, that it (intentionally or not) shows that ideological feminists are unethical, hateful people who will go to any length to destroy boys and men, including inventing or distorting facts, manipulation of the media and politicians, using double standards, taking either side of an argument as it suits their purposes, outright lying, intimidation, and ideology masquerading as "scholarship".
So basically in buying this book, you are really getting two books: a work proving that education of boys needs to be reformed, and an accurate critique of feminism.
the book should be one of your books about rising a boy these days 
2007-02-14
I did not go to this book in the first place, the title and the approach seems too controversial and not a good source of rational thinking about a subject. I personally prefer more balanced, more scientific arguments. After reading a lot on the subject I finally reached the conclusion the best book to read was "Why Gender Matter" by Leonard Sax.
However, then, somebody recommend me this and I read it. It totally worth is price. Cristina Sommers made me reflect about the fact that politic and market forces make arguments look very scientific and nice even when they are not. Science is as good as the source and the intentions of the persons doing the analysis and backing the data.
She clearly and successfully make the point that certain political agendas implemented in our school were based on a controversial foundation and finally resulted in a negative force for our boys. You do not want to rise boys as girls nor viceversa. The 70s are gone. Fortunately, is not 1955 again. But is not the 70s. Sommers let us imagine a balanced 2010 were not only gender becomes accepted as it is but also character education, honor, discipline ..etc, things that were lost in a too-progressive, Rousseau-oriented education that is not getting results.
An enlightened woman 2007-01-11
Ms. Sommers gets it. America is short-changing its boys. We are raising them in the style of girls and it doesn't work. Worse, it sends the message that they are NOT OK. American culture is already feeling the effects of this - something the author does not spend much time on. If she had, and had also incoporated a discussion of the larger economic disincentives to bring up our boys (who, because of their needs, cost more than relatively tractable girls) I would have given the book 5 stars. As it is, read it and be prepared to be shocked. You may not agree with everything, and there are a few "yes, but..." counter-arguments to make, but overall, the picture she paints is a very sorry one for our boys. It's a quick and easy read, though one that should churn your insides, regardless of gender.
A well reasoned call for change 2006-12-09
Having grown up in the very years Sommers is writing about, many of the experiences which she shares about boys being encouraged to be less boyish resonate deeply with my educational experience. She paints a rather accurate portrait of what current educational thought is attempting to do to the identity of boys and how it is thoroughly failing them.
She spends much of the book discussing this attempted deconstruction of a boy's identity and only in the last third does she turn her attention to what things can be done to ameliorate this situation. She covers various educational solution, many of which are thought provoking and have shown results. I wish she had devoted more attention to fleshing these chapters out, particularly the one on ethics, but overall I was pleased with her treatment of the topic as a whole.
Enjoyable diatribe 2008-02-01
Does affirmative action lead to reverse discrimination? Sommers believes it does, and that the education of boys in the United States is suffering as a result of programs meant to help girls. She writes with such clarity and penetrating logic that this book is great entertainment however much you disagree with her (as I do). She is at her best when she attacks the enemy with scathing wit. Carol Gilligan, who tried to prove that girls are nicer than boys, and sold six hundred thousand copies of her sloppily researched book, is a major target. Poor Dr. Gilligan must have cried all the way to the bank, accompanied by Mary Pipher, the author of "Reviving Ophelia." Sommers crucifies Dr. William Pollack for his amiable ramblings about how guys feels pressured to be macho. She even has the temerity to take on Faludi, who can doubtless look after herself. It's all great fun.
She's not quite as effective when it comes to positive recommendations, and commits some of the sins of unverified assertion tha she accuses others of. For example she says that, at Columbine High School "a K-12 curriculum infused with moral content would have created a climate that might have made a massacre unthinkable."
Thanks Ms Sommers for caring about boys! 2008-01-17
It is so refreshing to have an author look at a problem with boys' (and girls') interests at heart. Full of facts, well written and well reasoned. A real treat for an embattled male. Thanks Ms. Sommers! You make me glad I have tried to be fair to women in my classes and in hiring.
This Book is a Must Read for Parents of Boys 2007-11-12
As a father of 3 boys, Christina Hoff Sommers book brings to life some of the experiences that I had with my boys, especially my oldest son. He had been told in class not to draw pictures of knights because they carried a sword (weapons, yikes!), and after I discovered he LOVED the Grimms Tales, as opposed to the incredibly boring reading worksheets given to him, he got in trouble for talking about witches, the devil, nooses, all the things that naturally intrigue a boy.
The book describes the social engineering that some radical psychologists favor in a way that is frighteningly similar to the systematic indoctrination of children that occured in Soviet Russia or Communist China. For women out there, imagine what it would be like for girls if 80% of teachers were men, instead of women, and the curriculum reflected the interests of men primarily. Having been through my experience with my oldest son, if there was an all boys, private school in my area, I'd take a very serious look at it.
Do-gooders that seek to use government power and coercion to change the way people think or behave are a tremendously dangerous group, especially since they don't understand they have no right to take away the freedom of their fellow citizens. As Frederick Hayek said in his famous book, this is "the road to Serfdom".
David
Excellent, Straight Information about Critical Issues facing our boys. 2007-09-11
A Brave, insightful, fully footnoted and supported, rational, objective, critical, and eye-opening piece of research and literature, Christina Hoff Sommers not only writes beautifully and engaging but also leaves little doubt as to what has happened in our educational system and society at large relative to recent approaches to gender differences in our educational system and society.
She is brave in her approach and as this is clearly indicated as she has gone through all the necessary steps to research her material, this included attending conferences and symposiums of those that do not share her views. While this places her in difficult situations it is clear that what she leaves with is a more objective view, either tempered by her adversaries rationality or fueled by their irrationality (more often the latter).
I highly, highly recommend this book.
Another fantastic book from Christina 2007-08-21
Although 6 years old now, this book was a breakthrough book which intelligently exposed what all thinking people knew already - that many of the American male youth are being irreparably harmed by a movement which, although having in its history won the essential rights anyone would demand in a democracy, has degenerated into a hate-machine, chewing up funds and lying to maintain both its existence as well as the employment of countless thousands of women in the feminist infrastructure.
Sadly, it is evident to me that what Christina describes for the US is evident in just about every Western country. A short anecdote will show what I mean. As an English person in Germany I have assisted teachers in marking papers for final examinations, where I was shown the official model answer for the exam, the State's answer, if you will. One concerned a very short story by an American author, quite a well-known one but whose name I forget right now, which I must briefly relate:
A man gets off a bus and a woman recognizes him. She runs up to him, almost wanting to kiss him, but he acts distanced and unfriendly. We find out through the narrator though, that several years before she had left him for another man, and he had been absolutely heartbroken. Then, as luck would have it, he had met the love of his life, married her and they were now happily together with two children. She however, had since broken up with her new partner. The story ends with them making some non-committal comments to each other before they separate.
Incredibly, the official answer provided by the German Federal Education Department stated that Bill was in the wrong here, he was the bad one for not valuing friendship! She had only tried to be nice to him and he had cold-shouldered her, ignoring her betrayal and resulting heartbreak. I then quickly imagined their analysis of the story if we reversed the sexes exactly: a woman steps off a bus, and man recognises her. He runs up to her, getting really close and even looking like he wants to kiss her. How dare he! This man left her for another woman and broke her heart a couple years back, now he sees her in public and thinks he can just throw himself at her, she who destiny rewarded after his betrayal with a loving husband and two children. The cheek of it! She rightfully cold-shoulders him, they make a few non-committal comments and disappear. Would the German Education Department then point the finger at the woman, saying how unfriendly she is? Hardly likely. What they'd now doubt ask is how audacious can this man be, to leave a woman like that and then expect when seeing her again to just run straight in to her arms and kiss her. This would have been the correct analysis from the start, but the criticism of women is not allowed in the education system here. German men have it especially bad, as because of their country's 20th century history, any discussion of THEIR own rights or open criticism of women can lead them to be associated with the political right-wing much more than in other countries. Thus they teach the kids that they all equal at school, then they leave the school and the boys go to the army for 10 months, or perform a Civil Service, working in hospitals, old age homes, etc, doing mainly heavy lifting and carrying work. The girls are free to go off and do as they wish. Crazy. Yet few boys complain at this injustice. The girls would be going crazy if it were reversed! Yet they don't care, and just embarrassingly shrug off any attempt to talk about it. I would urge all these young men, to demand from a future government that respects their rights this time back in payment or early retirement. Like Christina shows with the US, boys around the world are up against it in a matriarchal system which threatens to emasculate them, and all praise to brave women like Christina for helping to highlight this war, which unlike Susan Faludi's mythical one, has practically been declared.
