On the battlefields of the Civil War a new masculine ideal was forged. Its defining terms--the glorification of male elites, activities, and games, and the marginalization of women and others--were most clearly set forth at Harvard University. Kim Townsend introduces us to the college men who were the most influential supporters and vocal critics of the new ideal of manhood: William James, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles William Eliot, W. E. B. Du Bois, George Santayana, and others. Manhood at Harvard penetrates a distinctive culture, the legacy of which has reverberated powerfully in education, politics, and society throughout the twentieth century.

Kim Townsend is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Amherst College. He is the author of Sherwood Anderson: A Biography.