Publisher's Synopsis
In Gods, Gears, and Gender, cultural historian Joe S. Jackson takes readers on a sweeping journey through time, tracing the evolution of masculine identity from the mythic heroes of antiquity to the hardened laborers of the Industrial Age. Drawing on mythology, philosophy, sociology, and psychology, this thought-provoking book unpacks how male archetypes-from Hercules to factory foremen-have been shaped by power, vulnerability, class, and cultural change.
Jackson challenges conventional narratives of what it means to be a man, revealing masculinity as a dynamic construct deeply influenced by myth, historical upheaval, and modernity's relentless pace. With clarity and insight, he invites readers to reconsider old models and imagine new paths forward-where strength and sensitivity, reason and chaos, tradition and reinvention coexist.
Gods, Gears, and Gender is both a cultural excavation and a bold reimagining of masculine identity for an age in transition.
