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Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

One of the primary roles of Manacross time and culture is that of the warrior.

Indeed, how we define masculinity at its core is centrally shaped by warfare.

For example, the virtues we think of as manly, like courage and physical strength and daring

are vital in battle. And because for thousands of years, men have primarily been the ones

doing the fighting, we expect men to possess those masculine virtues.

But the way war is waged has changed throughout human history.

If warfare informs our ideas of manhood, do the changes in war change our ideas about what it

means to be a man? Well, my guest in the show answers that question in the affirmative. His name is

Leo Brody. He's a cultural historian and film critic and the author of several in-depth and

engaging cultural histories. One of them being the frenzy of renown if you haven't read that book,

it's fantastic, check it out. But today we're going to talk about his book from terrorism to

chivalry, war and then changing nature of masculinity. In this book, Leo Dells deep into the culture

of history of warfare in the West and shows how the changes in battlefield weaponry and tactics

have changed our ideas of manhood. Today on the show, Leo and I discuss how the different ways of

healies and Odysseus fought battles created two competing ideas of manhood among the ancient Greeks

and how we see that competition still going on today. We then dig deep into the chivalry code of

the Middle Ages and how aristocratic warriors combine Christian piety with pagan warrior fierceness.

Leo then walks us through how the rise of the democratic nation state changed warfare and manliness

and we end our conversation talking about how the current war on terror is suddenly changing our

ideas of masculinity today. This is a fascinating show full of keen and thought-provoking insights

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