Manly Knowledge

America’s First Popular Men’s Magazine: The National Police Gazette

by Brett & Kate McKay

Several years ago I was wandering the stacks at the University of Tulsa library when I happened to chance upon an old, pink book with the words “Police Gazette” gilded on the spine in fancy script. I don’t know why, but I took it off the shelf and started to thumb through it. Inside I [...]

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Man Knowledge: A History of Man-Eaters

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Ty Karnitz. What separates man from beast? It is a question I’ve heard answered a dozen ways: religion, tool-making, empathy, agriculture, self-awareness. The real answer is much simpler. The only thing that separates man from beast is a wall. And that only works most of the time. [...]

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What to Do When You Get Pulled Over by the Police

by Brett & Kate McKay

This post sponsored by the delicious caramel, chocolate and nougat inside every Milky Way® What to do when you get pulled over by the police.

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Wax Seals: A History and How-To

by Brett & Kate McKay

The use of wax seals largely disappeared along with the popularity of handwritten correspondence. But judging by the surprising number of sealed envelopes I receive from AoM readers, the practice has certainly not died out completely among those who still practice the art of letter writing. The appeal? They add an element of distinction to [...]

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A Primer on Greek Mythology: Part IV – The Odyssey and Applying What We’ve Learned

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tony Valdes. Welcome back to our series on Greek mythology. In the previous posts we established mythology’s core elements by examining the gods of Olympus, the creation of mankind, the mortal heroes, and the ten-year conflict of the Trojan War. In this final post, we will take [...]

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A Primer on Greek Mythology: Part III — The Trojan War

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Tony Valdes. Welcome back to our series on Greek mythology. In the previous posts we established the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses, the origin stories of humanity, and the heroes that inspired the Greeks. Today, all of that background knowledge will come together in the story [...]

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How to Tell Time Like a Soldier

by Brett & Kate McKay

Having not served in the Armed Forces, I was always thrown for a loop whenever someone would randomly bust out military time. I didn’t have problems with morning times — those are easy to figure out. 0800. Yeah, I got it. 8:00am. It was when someone gave me a time that was in the afternoon [...]

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A Primer on Greek Mythology: Part II — The Mortal World and Its Heroes

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Tony Valdes. Welcome back to our series on Greek mythology. In the last post we defined what a myth is and examined the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses. Today we will leave the lofty heights of Olympus and come down to the mortal world. Don’t forget, [...]

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A Primer on Greek Mythology: Part I — The Gods and Goddesses

by A Manly Guest Contributor

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tony Valdes. Greek mythology might sound like an obscure area of study, as if it is only relevant to wizened old professors in posh offices at Ivy League schools. Or perhaps you associate the topic with vague memories of sensationalized Hollywood summer movies. Ancient Greek culture, however, [...]

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The Libraries, Studies, and Writing Rooms of 15 Famous Men

by Brett & Kate McKay

This post is brought to you by Volvo. What’s this? 15 more Man rooms of 15 famous men.

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A History of the American Bachelor: Part I – Colonial and Revolutionary America

by Brett & Kate McKay

Many of you who read the Art of Manliness are bachelors. And if you’re married, well, you were a bachelor once, too. Bachelorhood has become such an ingrained part of the male experience, that we usually don’t give it too much thought except to make jokes about bachelor pads or married men “batching it” when [...]

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Man Knowledge: 15 Cool Spy Concealments

by Brett & Kate McKay

In a previous edition of our Man Knowledge series, we discussed the fascinating history of invisible ink. In doing the research for that post, we came across an equally interesting tool in the spy’s bag of tricks: the concealment device. Invisible ink was handy for sending secret messages, but sometimes spies and soldiers needed to [...]

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Man Knowledge: The Men in the Arena–A Primer on Roman Gladiators

by Chris

Roman gladiators occupy a special place in the minds and imaginations of modern men. The imagery of the man in the arena spans millennia, reaching from Ancient Rome itself to the 20th century and beyond. In his famous speech Citizenship in a Republic, Theodore Roosevelt spoke of that man…a man whose face was “marred by [...]

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Man Knowledge: The History of Invisible Ink

by Brett & Kate McKay

In April of this year, the CIA released its oldest classified documents and the last from the World War I era. Dating from 1917 and 1918, the papers mainly contain recipes for “secret writing”–instructions for agents of the Office of Naval Intelligence (the CIA did not yet exist) on how make invisible ink. Such a [...]

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11 Manliest Brand Icons of All Time

by Brett & Kate McKay

For over a century, companies have used masculinity and manliness (or idealized versions of it) to sell their wares to both men and women. When selling to women, advertisers hope to lure the fairer sex into opening their pocketbooks by using masculinity to symbolize the strength of their products or by associating their brands with [...]

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Man Knowledge: 5 Pirates Every Man Should Know

by Chris

Following up our recent article introducing you to the life and ways of pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy, we will now look to some of the individual personalities that made this lifestyle so fascinating for generations to come. From the sheer effectiveness of Black Bart Roberts to the fascinatingly flamboyant Blackbeard, these are [...]

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Man Knowledge: A Pirate Primer

by Chris

Once again we return to our Man Knowledge series, where we set out to equip you with a deeper knowledge of various manly and interesting topics throughout history. Today we set sail for the horizon, delving deep into a topic which has at some point captured the imagination of every young boy and grown man [...]

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The Basics of Art: The Romantic Period

by Brett & Kate McKay

This is Part III in a series designed to give readers a primer on the simple basics of some of the major periods of Western art in the hopes of giving you something to say on your next date to the museum and a deeper appreciation for art in general. The Basics of Romantic Art [...]

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Classical Rhetoric 101: The Five Canons of Rhetoric – Arrangement

by Brett & Kate McKay

Welcome back to our series on Classical Rhetoric. Today we’re continuing our five-part segment on the Five Canons of Rhetoric. Last time we discussed invention, which is essentially brainstorming and planning your speech or writing. In this installment, we’ll be exploring the canon of arrangement. Let’s get started. What Is Arrangement? Arrangement is simply the [...]

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