Compared to previous studies on American masculinity which have, at times, leaned on generalizations, Clive Baldwin in Anxious Men investigates the nuances of masculine identities in early Cold War America. The book analyses fictional representations of masculinity published between 1945 and 1957. The placement of fictional texts at the centre of the study leads to an examination of how these narratives contribute to or subvert notions and expectations of masculinity during this period.

The historical approach of the study is supported by many explorations into sociological, anthropological, and psychoanalytical studies of the era. Of particular note is Baldwin's application of how conceptions of masculinity were often pinned upon physical signifiers. The study's historical focus does not detract from Baldwin's consideration of the work of fellow scholars, including Christopher Forth, Bill Osgerby, and K. A. Cuordileone. Furthermore, Baldwin consistently includes feminist perspectives in his readings, and remains conscious of restrictive and shifting privilege and power relations.

The chapters explore a variety of relationships present between masculinity and race, class, violence, and sexuality. The study examines how fiction can endorse the differentiation of gender roles and what constitutes masculinity, as well as “expose significant fractures and silences” in conceptions of masculinity (26). Canonical texts are situated alongside less well known ones. By combining an array of texts, by exploring a host of themes, and by synthesizing a historical approach with more recent theories, Baldwin provides a valuable contribution to masculinity studies.

Chapter 1 examines four novels: The Catcher in the Rye (1952) by J. D. Salinger, The Giant (1952) by Edna Ferber, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955) by Sloan Wilson, and On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac. Baldwin revealingly explores through these texts the extent to which representations of masculinity conform to mainstream gender roles. Chapter 2 explores the prevalent belief that masculine identity is bound to violence. Baldwin provides an insightful analysis of how The Naked and the Dead (1948) by Norman Mailer and From Here to Eternity (1951) by James Jones depict the ways in which the army as an institution fortified hegemonic notions of masculinity dependent on violence and physical resilience.

Chapter 3 investigates representations of male sexuality. The chapter is framed by a consideration of the Kinsey report of 1948, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male; the previously taboo subjects and contradictions exposed in the report lead to a contextually charged analysis of The Disguises of Love (1952) by Robie Macauley and the queer challenges to heterosexuality in The City and the Pillar (1948) by Gore Vidal, Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) by Truman Capote, and The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith. Baldwin's closing analysis on sensuality in The Gallery (1947) by John Horne Burns considers the representation of heterosexuality and homosexuality in the novel. Due to his rich analysis, Baldwin convincingly concludes that despite instability concerning masculinity and sexuality, it can be argued that “men retained their dominance” because “contemporary discourses successfully contained the contradictions, despite some fraying at the edges” (156).

Chapter 4 considers how far Jewish American representations of masculinity can be seen to be adapting to mainstream codes of American masculinity. Baldwin situates his analyses of Focus (1945) by Arthur Miller, The Young Lions (1948) by Irwin Shaw, The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1953) and The Wasteland (1946) by Jo Sinclair within the context of the Holocaust's legacy and shifting notions of whiteness. The final chapter investigates fiction written from the perspective of African Americans. The key texts analysed are If He Hollers Let Him Go (1945) by Chester Himes, The Street (1946) by Ann Petry, Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison, and Giovanni's Room (1956) by James Baldwin. The chapter explores the positioning of African American masculinity as “other,” and how writers strove to articulate stable black masculinities and to deconstruct mainstream masculine and sexual expectations.

Overall, Anxious Men is an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship concerned with American masculinity as Baldwin explores how “diverse, contradictory, conflicted and contested” it is during the 1940s and 1950s (235). The legacy of the Depression and the Second World War created a crisis over what constituted a masculine identity, which, as Baldwin investigates, led to conservatism and rebellion. The array of masculine representations explored in the study, from office workers to cowboys, soldiers, queer representations, and minority perspectives, provides evidence of how rich and diverse contradictions were to constructions of the masculine gender during the early Cold War era.