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.

A boy doesn't automatically become a man at age 18. What differentiates a man from a boy is the way he lives. A boy lives day to day, wants to be MVP, plays, wants the reassurance of the crowd, and is a predator. A man has a vision for his life, is a team player, works, has the courage to take a minority position, and is a protector. These are the five marks of a man. It's not enough to just know them. A real man aggressively pursues them on a daily basis. Drawing from his own experience and the lives of others, pastor Brian Tome calls on men to examine themselves and take steps in the direction of a fully realized manhood that honors God, respects women, elevates others, and works purposefully for an end greater than their own satisfaction or pleasure. It's time for men to step into their honorable place in the world and lean into a new reality--one defined by strength, purpose, and honor.

John McNeel (1745-1825), a native of Frederick County, Virginia, was the first settler in the Little Levels, Pocahontas County, West Virginia. He married Martha Davis, daughter of Thomas and Anne Davis. They had six children. Descendants lived in West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, and elsewhere.