"Christopher Greig sheds fresh light on our understanding of the making, from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, of a recurrent crisis in boyhood. Greig sees this as an illusionary extension of the wider 'crisis in masculinity,' ubiquitous in popular media and professional discourse since the end of the Second World War. 'Ontario Boys' presents a lucid and insightful examination of ideal boyhood models based on simplistic and neoliberal notions in the postwar era of togetherness, teamwork, loyalty, physical health, and boyhood heroism. He contrasts these with popular fears of delinquent juvenile males, who often sought the leadership provided by boys' clubs and Boy Scout movements as an alternative to gang associations. This book offers thoughtful critique of the fears every era manufactures for the overall well-being and vigour of its boyhood-to-manhood maturation processes. It will provoke us to consider that the alarm sirens ringing today for the so-called 'forgotten children' of our schools and local communities, boys failing to succeed according to standards others set, are part of a continuing angst across Ontario and throughout modern societies generally."
Robert Rutherdale, Algoma University, co-editor, with Magda Fahrni, of 'Creating Postwar Canada: Community, Diversity, and Dissent, 1945-1975' (2009) and author of 'Hometown Horizons: Local Responses to Canada's Great War' (2004) "Ontario Boys represents a valuable contribution to the literature on boyhood.... It not only provides scholars with several strong arguments on how masculinity shapes our understanding of boyhood, but it does so in an engaging and well-written manner."
Jason Reid, Ryerson University
Historical Studies in Education, 26, 2, Fall 2014, 201506