Robert Aronson

Associate Professor, PHE

The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden

This book has become a phenomenon in both the UK (where it was originally published) and the US. It is probably talked about more than it is read. The title itself is intriguing. My interest in the social construction of masculinity led me to glance at the book and open its cover at the UNCG bookstore. The fact that the title contains the words "boys" and "danger" is ingenious in terms of a marketing strategy, despite the fact that much of the book has very little to do with danger and the content is not the sole domain of boys. So let me pose some questions for discussion. What does danger have to do with being a boy? What content would you include in a book about being a boy? Do the topics covered in the book provide a good representation of what you think boyhood is all about? What should be added and what should be discarded? How do our ideas about boyhood relate to our ideas of manhood? Does a book about being a boy necessarily say anything about our ideas about being a girl?