Book Review: The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi: A Historical Archeology of Masculinity at a University Fraternity

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi: A Historical Archeology of Masculinity at a University Fraternity by Laura A. Wilkie (2010). College fraternities, or secret Greek-letter societies, are rarely presented in a positive light. Contemporary newspaper articles, books, movies, and other media discuss mainly the evils of fraternal life, such as hazing deaths, sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse as well as the systematic taunting and sometimes torturing of new fraternity initiates. While such topics come up for discussion in The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi, the work avoids dwelling on them and manages to be a nuanced and innovative study of daily life at the oldest chapter of a national fraternity at the University of California at Berkeley from the late nineteenth century through early twentieth century. Based on documents, photographs, interviews, and two seasons of archeological excavation at the site of the fraternity house itself, the volume is a useful microhistory of an all-male organization during periods of great transitions in the conceptualization and expectations of gender relations. The author uses both written and material culture to document a transition in the expectations of manhood at the turn of the twentieth century, using as a guide the changing physical plant and architecture of two versions of the Zeta Psi fraternity house. The first of these was built in 1870 and the second, on the same site, in 1910. For Victorian and Edwardian men of the first house, the ideal was to civilize and tame the wilderness, embodied for them by the new State of California. "Manliness" was defined by civilization and whiteness. This situation had shifted by the early twentieth century, when the play "Peter Pan"-the story of a little boy who lived in Never Land and who would not grow up-was wildly popular with audiences. By that time, as white collar employment in offices was becoming the norm, men reacted by making boxing, safaris and the outdoor life the manly ideal, and Tarzan the Ape Man became an icon of popular culture. In reaction to the taming forces of domestication represented by the world of women, a new ideal of masculinity reigned emphasizing violence and primal urges. In addition to the light, this work sheds on the history of masculinity in the United States, it is a useful contribution to the history of higher education, to the history of the State of California, and to the history of student life and customs at one of the nation's leading universities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)