Book Note: Rewriting Masculinity

 The first modern Gideons, Kelly J. Murphy reminds us, were traveling men. The Gideons International, best known for distributing Bibles in hotel rooms, on college campuses, and wherever free Bibles are to be found, are an international association of Christian businessmen, founded in 1899 by three traveling salesmen and still in existence today. They took their name from the biblical Gideon, the ancient Israelite judge and military commander whose story is found in Judges 6-8. Murphy's study of Gideon, Rewriting Masculinity: Gideon, Men, and Might, offers a fascinating journey of its own, through the transformations, revisions, and rewritings of masculinity in the Gideon story.