Books

Acceleration: Sordid Stories of Septuagenarian Decline

Plain View Press, 2026

Ageing people face a quandary: as the passage of time accelerates, our bodies decelerate. We slow down. We hurt. We face limits, sometimes humiliating ones. And we complain. As boomer men get older, we become easy targets for the online musclemen of the “male bodily decline industry” who bombard us with pitches: for a few bucks (often, quite a few bucks) we can remain strong, virile, and forever young. So, do we pony up our retirement savings in hopes of re-sprouting a head of hair, smoothing our skin, bulking our biceps, and achieving erections on demand? In Acceleration, Michael Messner shares sordid stories of his disappearing hair, arthritic hands, collapsing face, and evaporating athletic skills, and he advocates simply forging ahead…and having a joke on ourselves along the way.

The High School: Sports, Spirit, and Citizens, 1903–2024

Rutgers University Press, 2025

• “The High School [is] a brilliant work that may have many of us digging out our own yearbooks and revisiting our own stories.” — C.J. Pascoe, author of Nice is Not Enough
• “The High School has an important place in every sport sociologist’s library, but it also stimulates all of us to look back at our high school years with new eyes…a magnificent analysis.” — Patricia Vertinsky, author of The Female Tradition in Physical Education
• “Michael Messner has written a powerful, compelling analysis…a superb study of gender, power, race, and class in Salinas, California.” — Carol Lynn McKibben, author of Salinas: A History of Race and Resilience
• “Compelling…meticulously researched…a lively narrative about one of the most important institutions of adolescent life.” — Susan Cahn, author of Coming on Strong

Unconventional Combat: Intersectional Action in the Veterans’ Peace Movement

Oxford University Press, 2021

• “Michael Messner has drawn back the curtain both on today’s US military’s misogynist and racialized culture and on older white male veteran peace activists’ difficulty in grasping its implications for them. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time.” — Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo’s War, Emma’s War
• “Michael Messner does a beautiful job of thinking deeply about the interconnectedness of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and social class…a wonderful contribution.” — Mignon Moore, Barnard College & Columbia University
• “A groundbreaking analysis of veterans and the peace movement…an important book for anyone interested in the complications of serving in the military and then coming to seek an end to war.” — Jo Reger, Oakland University

Guys Like Me: Five Wars, Five Veterans for Peace

Rutgers University Press, 2019

• “A deeply personal, very human book. Michael Messner has brought on stage some eloquent survivors whom our politicians should listen to before they dare even consider sending young men and women out to fight yet again.” — Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars
• “Michael Messner delivers an eloquent, passionate, and moving account of how war has sometimes moved veterans towards peace.” — Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer
• “There is a revelation on every page of Guys Like Me. A truly humane book.” — Cynthia Enloe, author of The Big Push
• “Michael Messner is our new Studs Terkel. Essential reading for those seeking to understand military veterans.” — Hugh Gusterson, author of Drone

No Slam Dunk: Gender, Sport, and the Unevenness of Social Change

with Cheryl Cooky

Rutgers University Press, 2018

• “Sport is an essential window for understanding what unites and divides us…No Slam Dunk is essential: a decoder ring for understanding issues of gender and sexuality with the Rosetta Stone that is the games we play.” — Dave Zirin, sports editor, The Nation
• “An invaluable, highly accessible resource and a fantastic addition to the sport and gender literature. Cooky and Messner provide a volume that is both entertaining and engaging.” — Jeffrey Montez de Oca, author of Discipline and Indulgence

Some Men: Feminist Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women

with Max A. Greenberg & Tal Peretz

Oxford University Press, 2015

Winner of the 2016 Distinguished Scholarship Award, Pacific Sociological Association

• “A practical, readable, inspiring guide to a crucial, growing, yet rarely reported American movement.” — Gloria Steinem
• “Vividly-written contemporary history from which everyone concerned with gender justice can learn.” — Raewyn Connell
• “Sure to stir the hearts of anyone championing a world where men denounce violence against women and advocate for the liberation of men.” — Rob Okun
• “A stellar book…a must-read not only for students and scholars but also for policy-makers and activists working toward ending gender-based violence.” — Verta Taylor

King of the Wild Suburb: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Guns

Plain View Press, 2011

• “Michael Messner humanely explores the evolving, often confusing dynamics of masculinities between three generations of boys and men.” — Cynthia Enloe
• “Opens up the affective terrain between fathers and sons, and in the process deepens and complicates our understanding of masculinity.” — Alice Echols
• “What makes this book so moving and thoughtful are the connections between fathers and sons that Messner both ponders and experiences…Highly recommended.” — Literary Mama

It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports

University of California Press, 2009

• “In this amazing book, Messner provides the reader with fascinating insights into the gendered nature of youth sports…Recommended.” — Choice
• “A perceptive, vividly detailed, and highly readable book.” — Barrie Thorne

Out of Play: Critical Essays on Gender and Sport

State University of New York Press, 2007

2008 Choice Outstanding Academic Title, American Library Association

• “Messner takes the topic of gender to new heights…an appealing, eye-opening, and frightening read for anyone interested in sports, women’s studies, gender studies, or American culture in general.” — Choice
• “The brilliance of Messner’s volume lies in its ability to combine analysis of materially based institutional structures and media-based representations.” — American Journal of Play

Taking the Field: Women, Men, and Sports

University of Minnesota Press, 2002

2004 Outstanding Book Award, North American Society for the Sociology of Sport

• “Messner opens our eyes and ears to how much work still lies ahead before girls and women truly take the field with equal societal approval as boys and men.” — Diana Nyad
• “A first-rate analysis. It is a key reference on gender and sport.” — Gender & Society

Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements

Alta Mira Press, 1997

• “A timely and lively book that illuminates not only what different groups of men think about gender but how they actually perform gender in their daily lives.” — Verta Taylor, Signs
• “A lucid, jargon-free overview of recent American men’s reactions to feminism.” — R.W. Smith, Choice

Sex, Violence and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity

edited with Donald F. Sabo

The Crossing Press, 1994

• “Men’s studies scholars Messner and Sabo…have never been more serious than in this collection of essays and articles that address the relationship between sports and violence.” — Publishers Weekly
• “The authors, both academics and former athletes, examine the culture of male sports and its relation to concepts of masculinity.” — Booklist

Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity

Beacon Press, 1992

1993 Outstanding Book Award, North American Society for the Sociology of Sport

• “An examination of the heartland of masculinity…A work of clarity and insight.” — Gender and Society
• “An eye opener about sport and its meaning…Loaded with valuable insights.” — San Francisco Chronicle