Book Review: Elite White Men Ruling: Who, What, When, Where, and How

Abstract

pornography (chapter 4), and violence and spectacle (chapter 5). These chapters, rather than simply being case studies, are used to continue the theoretical work from the opening two chapters. These case studies, thus, deepen and enrich the arguments made earlier. The closing chapter concludes by bringing masculinity back to the fore and seeking to integrate the theoretical work from throughout the book and pushes the thinking further toward labor and reworking masculinity. While the book develops its theoretical thinking substantially, working through these cases, it struggles with balance at points. While the prose is clean, the varied sets of literatures covered can make for challenging reading at points. The book seeks to cover expansive theoretical ground, which opens up a number of lacunae. These gaps are partly unavoidable simply based on the scope of the book, but, at the same time, it is something that has an impact on the arguments put forth. From a gender perspective on nature, a notable absence is its lack of engagement with Sherry Ortner's "Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture." This chapter could have further substantiated and complicated Garlick's claims regarding his foundational thesis on nature. More disconcerting than this is the book's lack of engagement with the substantive set of scholars in the field of new materialism. Missing are the key figures such as Karen Barad, Rosi Braidotti, and Manuel DeLanda; similarly missing are the two prominent edited collections on new materialisms. For any gaps in the literature covered, what is most crucial is that the book does not shy away from theory and risks diving into diverse and dense literature. It is this, in particular, that the author must be commended for. For all of the advances in writing and thinking on men and masculinity, there is often a dramatic paucity of engagement with thinking theoretically through the most fundamental and crucial concepts of the field. It is this type of deep theoretical engagement that is crucial for scholars in this field to continue working through. Unafraid of a challenge, Garlick has pushed the field to think with new scholars and theories, a difficult and necessary thrust that we all can benefit from.