Being Boys: Youth, leisure and identity. Chapter 2: Ordinary boys & masculine men

What is it about?

Chapter 2 develops the themes of working-class boys and masculine expectations by examining the inter-war expansion of boys' clubs, which were significantly influenced by the determination to create a movement whose unifying mission was to turn ‘ordinary’ boys into ‘masculine men’. Within the movement, understanding and empathy for their working-class members combined with a desire to reinvigorate masculine values. This shaped a mission whose resonance had broader national implications, given that this ‘most truly working-class youth institution in terms of clientele’ had an authority beyond its size, with many influential supporters contributing to educational and social welfare policy for adolescent males, locally and nationally.

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