Review of *Of Beards and Men* by Christopher Oldstone-Moore

WorldCat link: Of Beards and Men
ISBN: 9780226284149

Before getting into the content of the book, I want to mention that my digital copy of this book from Google Play Books has functional page numbers.

I don't remember where I was when I decided I wanted to read a book on beards, but I do remember immediately going to Google Play Books and adding two items to my wishlist. This was one of them. The other one was about $10 more and seemed to be a collection of essays and papers on the topic. I regret not picking up that one.

I don't know if I can fault Christopher for my distaste in this book. It was interesting for the first few chapters, but I came to realize a few things: 1. most of the history of beards has been repeating a few key ideas in support of or against them 2. the book was about beards, and not necessarily facial hair in general 3. "I'm having a really hard time following this."

In my defense for #2, I assumed the title was a stylistic choice that rolled of the tongue better than "Of Facial Hair and Men" (though "Of Moustaches and Men" is pretty good too).

On point #1: it quickly felt like certain ideas were being recycled across civilizations. Religion was a heavy influence in all aspects. The upper-classes generally would be well-trimmed. Philosophers and those against the establishment would have beards. Shaving was either how one was kept holy and respectful of the divine, or it was an affront to the natural order. It began to feel like it could have just been a list of people, cultures, or organizations and their policy on beards.

On point #3, and I believe this is the more serious one: it began to be really hard to follow the organization of the book. After the first chapter or two, it began to skip forward and backward in centuries while talking about just one group. It would be multiple pages of background and context information before any mentions of facial hair. Context is important, but I wish there was less of it.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it as far as I would have liked. I've dropped the book after around six chapters. I don't want to make a habit of reading things that aren't interesting to me.

As an interesting fact: clerics of the Catholic church could allegedly be excommunicated until 1917.

Also, and I don't know if this was cleared up in later chapters, but there was a huge influence on what I'd call the "Christian" perspective - not necessarily religiously, but focusing on that area of the world and those cultures. The far East, Africa, early America, and far-Northern Europe weren't mentioned in the first few chapters (and skimming the rest didn't appear to mention anything either).