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As a historian with an interest in the history of masculinity and higher education, I came to Daniel Horowitz's On the Cusp with a natural fascination with Yale, both as a preeminent institution and as a special seat in the formation of an ideal manhood that influenced the nation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The continued impact of the ideal "Yale Man" figures prominently in Horowitz's memory as well, if more as a model to rebel against. Horowitz seeks to find some insight into how family, education, and the Yale experience factored into the development of a class sitting in between the staid conformity of the 1950s and the rebellion of the 1960s. Many might first cast a skeptical eye toward yet another retrospective on this generation, and certainly Horowitz's interest centers on trying to understand where the activism and commitment to 1960's style change came from-seemingly more of this generation's self-infatuation. Nevertheless, this is not another study of how great (or horrible) baby boomer movers and shakers were.
The book clearly grew out of the Yale class of 1960's fiftieth reunion, its class reunion book, and Horowitz's own self-reflection. While the class...