Real Men: Ten Courageous Americans to Know and Admire

by R. Cort Kirkwood

Book Overview

Most young Americans today know virtually nothing of the heroes of our not-so-distant past, and much of what they think they know is wrong. These heroes have largely been censored from our textbooks and culture. 'Real Men' is all about them. I read about them, heard about them, saw movies about them while growing up, R. Cort Kirkwood writes. They all were part of an American boy's life. They inspired us, and we aspired to be like them. Ten of those...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581825633
• ISBN13: 9781581825633
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Good book for young adults faced with revisionist history

I bought this book specifically for several teen age boys I know. As I read it prior to giving it away, I liked the accounts and the readers style in relating them. As a voracious reader of historical books I really liked the fact that it did not pull punches about the setting and explained the context of the stories as they were. In America today it is important to provide both narration of great deeds and the context they occurred in. The education system today is sadly lacking in promoting hero's and role models for young men. I would recommend this to anyone who has a son from the middle teens on and for young adults wanting to see history in short bites.

Real Men, Where Are They>?

It's good to be reminded that once, we had brave and courageous men . . yes, we still have those men, but unfortunately we seldom hear much about them. The media and literature seem to concentrate on everything that is wrong or twisted. Good men don't make the news anymore so this book is a refreshing read. I commend the selection and the author.

Just What We Need

In a very well-researched and well-told set of amazing - yet true stories, Kirkwood emphasizes themes almost forgotten on the American public scene. Honor. Respect. Diligence. Personal Courage. Selflessness. Using his background as both a respected newspaper editor and sometime political staffer, he explores aspects of leadership worthy of universal admiration and emulation. These men are not gods, but they are each one highly admirable, in ways Cort Kirkwood makes plain by his clear and thoughtful narrative - which spans biographies of three centuries. The book is wonderful as a set of stories to be shared around the hearth with the family, particularly young boys, but girls as well. For everyone in America should have a better idea than popular culture and ailing government education now present on this critical issue: manhood. As the nation struggles with legally-mandated recognition of homosexual "marriage," endless scandals, and schools which outlaw the games of "tag" and "dodgeball," voices like Kirkwood's are a refreshing and disciplined (factual) contribution to the increasingly stretched and frayed social fabric of America. The bottom line is: without more people like Eddie Rickenbacker, Rocky Versace, and Robert E. Lee, there can be very little hope that American society and culture will last out the current century. Cort Kirkwood is doing his part with this book to contribute to a solution to that problem. If that sounds like a challenge to you, perhaps you are meant to take it as such! Buy and read Real Men, is my advice. Jeff White Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army

An antidote for educational Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's is an autobiographical disease that robs people of their personal histories and life-long memories. Its victims do not remember who they are or what they have done; indeed, they do not know that they do not know. Journalist and author R. Cort Kirkwood contends that Americans are suffering from a type of educational Alzheimer's for we have forgotten the past and the deeds of those who came before us. Kirkwood, Managing Editor of the Daily-News Record in Harrisonburg, VA, insists that children must learn the exploits of heroic men so that they may imitate their character and aspire to their greatness. Ignorance of such heroes deprives children of much-needed role models. Real Men: Ten Courageous Americans to Know and Admire, chronicles the lives of once famous, but now mostly forgotten, Americans. It is written for young adults and brings names like Francis Marion, Eddie Rickenbacker, Rocky Versace, and Audie Murphy back from the not so distant past. Kirkwood presents much more than a compilation of entertaining and enlightening biographical sketches. He goes beyond these remembrances to ask tough questions about the nature of manhood and why these exemplary role models are now largely omitted from the education of our children. Some names he resurrects remain recognizable: Vince Lombardi, Lou Gehrig, Wild Bill Hickok, Davie Crockett, and Robert E. Lee. But as Kirkwood notes, the stories and reputations of these familiar monikers are often distorted and tarnished by revisionist historians and Hollywood adaptations. Kirkwood writes clearly and convincingly about manhood and what it looks like. He finds his evidence in the lives of real men, not perfect men, but men who understood duty, honor, and courage. He has no patience for defining "courage" as being willing to "come out of the closet" and he deplores the effeminacy of modern manhood where boys are encouraged to be more... well, feminine. A number of Kirkwood's heroes are soldiers and he firmly believes that there are principles worth dying for, and worth passing on to the next generation by regaling its youth with the heroic stories of those who have gone before them. Kirkwood thoughtfully ponders why modern America rarely produces the caliber of valiant and fearless men it seemingly once had in abundance. Real Men questions why some of our greatest leaders (such as Andrew Jackson) would now be disdained and disqualified by the same character traits that once propelled them to the highest office in the land. Historical ignorance is a symptom of our cultural illness; yet, it is largely a self-inflicted wound. Aldous Huxley, who famously predicted the brave new world that America increasingly resembles, once remarked, "Most ignorance is vincible ignorance; we don't know because we don't want to know; we remain uninformed because we refuse to read." R. Cort Kirkwood has provided an antidote for our educational Alzheimer's. Parents should buy it and administer

If you're a man who eats tofu, waxes your legs, and supports gun control... prepare to be offended

I would buy this book for just the author's introduction. Kirkwood takes no prisoners and tips every sacred cow of our effeminate culture, all the while reintroducing a new generation of Americans to some of our greatest heroes. Maybe one in ten Americans have heard of Francis Marion, and maybe only three in ten could place Robert E. Lee in the right century. The men portrayed in our TV sitcoms today are fat, stupid, lazy, immature, preoccupied with sex, and led by the nose by their wives, girlfriends, or children. But Kirkwood introduces us to men who were not only courageous in life, but virtuous. They were not just your average "tough guys." They were vigorous, religious, self-disciplined, responsible men. They knew what society expected of them, and they knew what they expected of themselves. For these and other reasons, they were our heroes once. But not today. Today, we have forgotten what real heroes look like. Young women who go to war and get captured and raped by the enemy are held up as our heroes. What about the hero Robert E. Lee, who would have never dreamed of sending women to fight his battles for him? The feminization of American culture has resulted in such profanation of our language that the "courage" of the teenage boys who charged the fields of Gettysburg and New Market is placed on the same level as the wax-legged metro-sexual "courageously" coming out to declare his love for the sewer. We need Real Men. Thank you, Mr. Kirkwood, for reminding us where we came from and encouraging us to return to the ancient paths of our fathers. The book is well-written and a relatively quick read. I read a chapter every day with my children and would highly recommend this to anyone. This is not only a book for men; it provides women with great examples of the kind of men they should want to father their children. America has been blessed with many examples of Real Men, and we need to become reacquainted with the great men of our past. Perhaps this will lead to our current generation leaving some examples that will deserve inclusion among the ranks of Real Men.