ABSTRACT
Masculinities are lived out in the flesh, but fashioned in the imagination. Among the many and varied imaginings that have given shape, purpose and direction to the lives of men, I am concerned in this book with only one: the soldier hero of adventure. The soldier hero has proved to be one of the most durable and powerful forms of idealized masculinity within Western cultural traditions since the time of the Ancient Greeks. Military virtues such as aggression, strength, courage and endurance have repeatedly been defined as the natural and inherent qualities of manhood, whose apogee is attainable only in battle. Celebrated as a hero in adventure stories telling of his dangerous and daring exploits, the soldier has become a quintessential figure of masculinity.
