Explore the vast range of titles available.

The Lost Boys of Zeta Psi takes us inside the secret, amusing, and sometimes mundane world of a California fraternity around 1900. Gleaning history from recent archaeological excavations and from such intriguing sources as oral histories, architecture, and photographs, Laurie A. Wilkie uncovers details of everyday life in the first fraternity at the University of California, Berkeley, and sets this story into the rich social and historical context of West Coast America at the turn of the last century. In particular, Wilkie examines men's coming-of-age experiences in a period when gender roles and relations were undergoing dramatic changes. Her innovative study illuminates shifting notions of masculinity and at the same time reveals new insights about the inner workings of fraternal orders and their role in American society.

This chapter explores the role that American‐collegian fraternity films (“frat films”) have played in selling fraternity life to adolescent college‐bound males. This research question is made especially intriguing by the institution's growth on American campuses, even as fraternities have been under attack from myriad external forces and have faced a growing litany of well‐publicized internal mistakes. After coding the top‐10 most popular frat films in the genre (as determined by Internet Movie Database [IMDb] voters) for shared character types and repeated narrative themes, six recurring and repeated generic tropes emerged. When viewing these shared six tropes collectively, they construct a social reality for viewers that sells Greek life as an important and needed augmentation to the otherwise harsh, friendless, and bland college experience that awaits them. Even if the commitment of joining a fraternity comes at the price of some short‐lived, humorous hazing, the ultimate payoff of friendship and never‐ending parties is shown to be well worth it. For as problematic as fraternity life may be in these films, to be an unaffiliated, under‐aged freshman is actually shown to be a far less appealing option.