This article gives you a glimpse of what you can learn with Shortform. Shortform has the world’s best guides to 1000+ nonfiction books, plus other resources to help you accelerate your learning.
Want to learn faster and get smarter? Sign up for a free trial here .
Do you want to get in touch with your masculine self? What are the best books on masculinity?
Society’s answer to what it means to be a man changes all the time. Ultimately, it’s your responsibility to figure out who you want to be as a man, and what your children should learn about manliness.
Keep reading for the most popular books on masculinity.
The Top Books on Masculinity
A few of the books below display what many people consider to be “toxic masculinity.” Despite this, it’s good to read them to get an idea of the traits you should avoid exhibiting as a man in the modern world. Other books advise you on how to use your masculinity to build healthy relationships with other people and yourself.
These books on masculinity cover many topics that most men will find useful in their lifetime.
What qualities does a “real man” display? Are men who play the role of a strong protector and provider a relic from the past—or even toxic and dangerous? Popular blogger and podcaster Rollo Tomassi says no.
In The Rational Male, Tomassi explains that men need to resist women’s calls to be nicer, gentler, and more emotional. Trying to be more like women will only keep men subjugated to a feminine agenda. Instead, men must reclaim their masculinity to achieve the freedom, confidence, and success they want.
What’s wrong with modern Western men? In Hard Times Create Strong Men, award-winning Canadian real estate investor Stefan Aarnio argues that modern Western men are weak—and this weakness will lead to the decline of Western civilization. To avoid this, men must grow strong again by embracing ownership of every aspect of their lives so that they can defend the practices and ideologies that make America great.
This book describes how Aarnio’s life experiences led him to write Hard Times Create Strong Men. Then, he shares his explanation of why Western men have grown weak and why this weakness is a problem. Finally, he lays out his definition of a strong man and Aarnio’s ideas on how to be a strong man at work and in relationships.
David Deida, a teacher, researcher, and author of 10 books on topics related to the sexual and spiritual growth of men and women, explains that the gender equality that lets us thrive in the workplace fails us in our intimate relationships.
To reclaim the passion in your relationship and enjoy the fullest degree of intimacy and sexual fulfillment, you must reconnect with your masculine or feminine essence and embrace your sexual polarity. Become a Superior Man by learning to be authentic, to find and prioritize your purpose, to understand and fulfill the needs of your woman, to discipline your desires and insist on growth, to embrace and channel your attraction to the feminine, and to prioritize connection over pleasure.
Do you pride yourself on being the nicest guy in the world? Does your fear of disapproval lead you to people-please, avoid conflict, and repress parts of yourself? If this sounds like you, you might be what Dr. Robert Glover calls a Nice Guy. Released in 2003, No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Proven Plan for Getting What You Want in Love, Sex, and Life by marriage and family psychotherapist Dr. Robert Glover helps you understand and conquer the frustrating—and often manipulative—Nice Guy mindset so that you can become a fully realized and self-accepting “Ideal Man.”
This book explores the “Nice Guy” and the origins of his mindset, as well as the roadblocks that perpetuate his unproductive life approach and specific strategies to overcome them.
In The Unplugged Alpha, entrepreneur Richard Cooper—best known for his YouTube channel “Entrepreneurs in Cars”—argues that modern men have been taught three big lies regarding how society works: that women are second-class citizens, that masculinity is a bad thing, and that humans are monogamous. To succeed, in your dating life and beyond, you need to move beyond these lies and transform your understanding of society and how to behave in it.
This book goes in-depth into the three lies and teaches you how to break free from them by becoming a high-value man. Then, you’ll learn how you can use this newfound status to become sexually successful.
In How Not to Be Wrong, one of the UK’s leading radio personalities—known for his ability to argue his guests into submission and prove his own rightness—changes course, compelled by a personal crisis to examine his “wrong” beliefs and misguided ways of relating to others.
James O’Brien argues in this part memoir, part self-help book that learning to change your mind when you’re wrong is a valuable tool for combating prejudice. Coming from a man who was taught never to show vulnerability, his method for changing his own mind is unexpected: starting therapy and exploring his childhood trauma. O’Brien claims that only by getting to the root of our pain can we learn to have empathy for others.
Author Neil Strauss had always assumed that it took natural charisma and confidence to pick up women—and that he simply didn’t have it. That all changed when he discovered the world of seduction and pickup artists (PUAs), a community of men who exchanged tips and advice for seducing women.
For two years, Neil learned pickup lines, approach tactics, and even hypnosis from the top PUAs in the seduction community. Neil started picking up, dating, and having sex with more women than he’d ever imagined possible. Eventually, he even became a guru within the community. But, over time, Neil realized that mastering the game wasn’t about memorizing lines and routines to get women into bed—it was about developing inner confidence.
In the modern world, how can a heterosexual man successfully attract women? In Models, self-help guru Mark Manson argues that the key lies in “non-neediness,” or inner confidence: Women desire a man whose sense of self-worth depends on how he judges himself rather than how others judge him.
In Models, you’ll discover why traditional dating advice or pickup techniques don’t work for you—and what to do instead to form meaningful connections with women. You’ll learn why inner confidence is essential to attracting women and how to develop it via three main keys: cultivating a satisfying life, overcoming your worries, and being vulnerable.
Final Words
Society exudes many conflicting ideas about what manhood is. Hopefully, with the help of these books on masculinity, you’ll learn what masculinity means to you as an individual. Live your truth and embrace your masculine side without shame.
What are your favorite books on masculinity? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!
Want to fast-track your learning? With Shortform, you’ll gain insights you won't find anywhere else .
Here's what you’ll get when you sign up for Shortform :
- Complicated ideas explained in simple and concise ways
- Smart analysis that connects what you’re reading to other key concepts
- Writing with zero fluff because we know how important your time is
