The Broken American Male: And How to Fix Him
By:
Shmuley Boteach
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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
Description:
Why do American husbands come home from work too exhausted to interact with their families? When did a healthy quest for prosperity become a twisted game no one can win? How did BlackBerries and internet porn become more interesting to men than their flesh-and-blood spouses? Shmuley Boteach has made a great study of how families live today—both in his work as a rabbi privately and as host of TLC’s “Shalom in the Home”. He’s discovered a disturbing common thread in the families he meets: men responding to the pressure of competition in their work lives by turning away from their loved ones. In a world that judges men by the size of their paychecks and the wattage of their fame, it’s all too easy to lose sight of what is truly valuable in life. Men who consider themselves failures and don’t love themselves turn into stressed-out dads, distracted husbands and miserable human beings. For these men, alcohol, the internet and sporting events serve as numbing stand-ins for read life. In THE BROKEN AMERICAN MALE, Boteach doesn’t just outline the problems facing marriages and nuclear families. He also offers practical, inspiring solutions, showing how wives can reach out to their husbands, helping them become heroes again to their own families.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: 2008-01-22
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Misses the real problem - I skimmed the first half of this book and various chapters in the second half. I wasn't impressed by Boteach's frequent use of the label "pathetic" for men who don't live as he does. However, the main reason I give it only two stars is that he missed the most serious problem men face today: the grim realities of marriage. A far better analysis of what is breaking the American male today is a beautifully written and well researched piece written by another Jewish gentleman, Marty Nemko. Nemko's essay and sobering numbers should be mandatory reading for every high school student, male or female:
http://www.martynemko.com/articles/men-as-beasts-burden_id1228
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Shmuley does it again! - He really hits the nail on the head, once more! A great read for any adult wanting to learn more about themselves and others!
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Broken American Male - Rabbi Boteach has written an excellent book. It is very thought provoking. Every man and women should read this book in order to understand what is going wrong today in this world. Once there is understanding, then you can move forward and correct the problem.
Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Excellent book! - I saw Shmuley on 700 club and was instantly anxious to own the book. My husband is reading it as well as myself, it is worth the read for both wife and husband. We must keep an open mind and always be willing to learn to grow and move forward in our lives. Excellent!!
Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Great topic, decent execution - After catching a few episodes of his TV show, I felt like Boteach "got it" in the way that Dr. Drew and occasionally Dr. Phil got it. He has the ability to cut to the core of the issue, understand when people are acting unhealthily and are unafraid to point fingers. The book confirmed my initial impression. Boteach is definitely onto something about male culture. His analogy of women and eating disorders and then men and workaholicism is apt. They are both a result of a tendency to apply internal identity to external factors. A woman feels she is as worthy as her beauty and a man as special as his wealth. No question, modern culture perverts many natural urges to unhealthy access--and we often examine how that effects women but rarely do the same for men. His book finally does this.
If there is any criticism to be leveled at this it is the mass of generalizations, feel-good assertions, and unsupported idealism. Look, men's behavior is not totally a result of culture. The traits he derides in the book existed long before man had developed to ability to speak, let alone build office buildings. To think that it could all go away with a few parenting changes is ridiculous. And as always, religion (namely the bible) is a poor place to found any theory. Being that he is a Rabbi, he rests heavily on scripture and the notion of "G-d." In this instance, I think he could have made an equally persuasive case without it. He didn't and the book suffers. I would recommend a few ev psych books to balance Boteach's words with some science such as Sperm Wars, The Evolution of Desire or even The Moral Animal.
Regardless, if you're a young person, you should read this before you go the way of your parents generation. And if you're older, maybe it's not too late to turn it around.
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