The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities

by Nicholas L. Syrett

Overview

Tracing the full history of traditionally white college fraternities in America from their days in antebellum all-male schools to the sprawling modern-day college campus, Nicholas Syrett reveals how fraternity brothers have defined masculinity over the course of their 180-year history. Based on extensive research at twelve different schools and analyzing at least twenty national fraternities, The Company He Keeps explores many factors--such as class, religiosity, race, sexuality, athleticism, intelligence, and recklessness--that have contributed to particular versions of fraternal masculinity at different times. Syrett demonstrates the ways that fraternity brothers' masculinity has had consequences for other students on campus as well, emphasizing the exclusion of different groups of classmates and the sexual exploitation of female college students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807888704
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	03/01/2009
Series:	Gender and American Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Nicholas L. Syrett is professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas and author of The Company He Keeps: A History of White College Fraternities and American Child Bride: A History of Minors and Marriage in the United States&8203;.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. Camaraderie and Resistance: The Founding and Function of College Fraternities
Chapter 2. The Sacred, the Secular, and the Manly
Chapter 3. Very Fraternally Yours: National Brotherhood in the Nineteenth Century
Chapter 4. Greeks and Barbs: Social Class and the Rise of the Fraternity in the Postbellum Years
Chapter 5. Fussers and Fast Women: Fraternity Men in the 1920s
Chapter 6. Democracy, Drinking, and Violence: Post-World War II Fraternities
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Long shrouded in baroque mystery, the collegiate fraternity has never before been the subject of such a clear, sensible, and grounded historical study. Nicholas Syrett's meticulous research draws back the curtain on these bastions of white male privilege, without solely celebrating their camaraderie nor condemning the cold cruelties on which it has historically rested.—Michael Kimmel, author of Manhood in America: A Cultural History



This is a well-researched and often provocative look at the changing role that fraternities have played on American campuses during two centuries of college life.—Paula Fass, author of The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s



The Company He Keeps is a study about broad themes and trends over time in American culture, seen through the lens of fraternity life and through the desires and drives of a particular (important) segment of the American population. I became engrossed in its pages and found myself both thinking and talking about Syrett's arguments. His attention to social anxiety, to competition, to the values of capitalism and business, and to masculinity is particularly intriguing. A thoroughly engaging book.—Diana Turk, author of Bound by a Mighty Vow: Sisterhood and Women's Fraternities, 1870-1920

Editorial Reviews

Careful, convincing, and well grounded in many primary sources. . . . Highly readable.—History News Network



The first [history of white fraternities in America] of its kind.—Greeley Tribune



There is a lot to learn from its pages; what is so rewarding about the text is its speculations about the advance—and possibly the decline—of American culture that it provokes. The more deeply Syrett probes, the more one wonders: what is our world coming to?—American Historical Review



Provides the first historical study that charts the growth of fraternities in the United States. He uses this dazzling assortment of evidence in order to evaluate how white men's ideas and enactment of, what he calls, 'fraternal masculinity,' changed over time. . . . Brilliantly articulates how this notion of masculinity changed and when it changed.—Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History



What makes this work stand out among studies of fraternity culture is the evolving definition of masculinity that serves as the conceptual lens for this book. . . . This is a fascinating perspective and offers college educators an insight into how the fraternity men on our campuses today may see themselves.—Journal of College Student Development



Six crisp, deeply researched chapters trace changes from the ideals of brotherhood and genteel manliness that gave birth to fraternities to those of masculinity linked to athleticism, sexual prowess, and the like that appeared by 2000. . . . Highly recommended.—Choice



A welcome addition to gender history and the history of education. . . . Masculinity specialists, historians of the nineteenth century, and historians of education will value Syrett's extensive research, impressive contextualization, and convincing argument that fraternities participated in the changing ideals of manhood.—Journal of American History



By researching fraternities found throughout the country and over two centuries, Syrett is able to make a comprehensive and important contribution to the history of sexuality, social life, and gender on college campuses. . . . He has helped to open the door for scholars to research fraternities and parts of extracurricular life as worthy historical topics.—H-Education



[An] engaging, readable, and ultimately disturbing history of white college fraternities.—Journal of Southern History



Vibrantly written. . . . To a remarkable degree, Syrett connects developments within both American society generally and American higher education specifically to explain the behavior of white fraternity men. . . . One of the best histories of college student life in recent years.—History of Education Quarterly

From the Publisher