Introduction to the second edition -- Introducing masculinities -- Growth of the field of study -- Debates and difficulties -- The global dimension -- In conclusion -- pt. I. Knowledge and its problems -- 1. The science of masculinity -- Rival knowledges -- Clinical knowledge -- The Oedipus complex -- Archetype and identity -- Radical psychoanalysis -- The male role -- The new social science -- Histories -- Ethnography of the other -- Social construction and gender dynamics -- Political knowledge -- The object of knowledge -- 2. Men's bodies -- True masculinity -- Machine, landscape and compromise -- The body inescapable -- Complexities of mire or blood -- Banquo's ghost : body-reflexive practices -- Forming the world -- 3. The social organization of masculinity -- Defining masculinity -- Gender as a structure of social practice -- Relations among masculinities : hegemony, subordination, complicity, marginalization -- Historical dynamics, violence and crisis tendencies -- pt. II. Four studies of the dynamics of masculinity -- Introduction -- 4. Live fast and die young -- Group and context -- Abstract labour -- Violence and the state -- Compulsory heterosexuality for men -- Masculinity as collective practice -- Protest masculinity -- Other trajectories -- Divergent masculinities and gender politics -- 5. A whole new world -- The moment of engagement -- Distancing -- The environmental movement -- Encounters with feminism -- The moment of separation -- The annihilation of masculinity -- The moment of contestation -- 6. A very straight gay -- The moment of engagement -- The grain of sand : sexuality -- Being gay : identity and relationships -- Relations between masculinities -- Facing change -- Gay masculinity as project and history -- 7. Men of reason -- Constructing masculinity -- Constructing rationality -- Career and workplace -- The irrational -- Reason and change -- pt. III. History and politics -- 8. The history of masculinity -- The production of masculinity in the formation of the modern gender order -- Transformations -- The present moment -- 9. Masculinity politics -- Men's politics and masculinity politics -- Masculinity therapy -- The gun lobby : defending hegemonic masculinity -- Gay liberation -- Exit politics -- 10. Practice and utopia -- Historical consciousness -- Purposes of action -- Degendering and recomposing -- Forms of action -- Education -- Prospects -- Afterword : the contemporary politics of masculinity -- Men's interests in contemporary patriarchy -- 'Backlash' politics -- Neoliberalism and men's interests -- The problem of violence -- Masculinity politics on a world scale.