A baby boomer and renowned historian of modern popular culture, Gary Cross explains the dramatic decline of male maturity in recent decades. Men today delay marriage and responsibility deep into their twenties and thirties, preferring instead to hold fast to the pleasures of youth. Instead of blaming the young or glorifying the past, Cross carefully studies the attitudes and cultures of three generations of men, linking their gradual rebellion against maturity to parallel shifts in American advertising, popular culture, and consumerism.

The "Greatest Generation" might have embraced their role as providers, but they were confused by the contradictions and expectations of modern fatherhood. Their uncertainty gave birth to the Beats and men who indulged in childhood hobbies and boyish sports. These boomer generation sons emulated the boyish rebels of the 1950s, who, failing to become "New Men," strove to be "forever young." Picking up on this trend, merchandisers began to appeal less to status, competence, and familial responsibility and more to youth and personal desire. As boomers aged, they collected the music, cars, and toys that echoed their youth and sought eternal youth in health foods and Viagra. Without mature role models to embrace or rebel against, Generation X turned to cynicism and sensual intensity, opting more and more to preserve the pleasures of the teenager into adulthood, and the media fed on this rebellion and longing, transforming a life stage into a highly desirable lifestyle. Arguing that contemporary American culture undermines both conservative ideals of male maturity and the liberal values of community and responsibility, Cross concludes with a proposal for a modern marriage between personal desire and the ethics of adulthood., reviewing a previous edition or volume