1940s-era ‘Handbook for Boys’ praised in New York Times Sunday Book Review

boy-scout-handbook-4th-editionTo the classics of American literature like The Great GatsbyOf Mice and Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird we must add one more: the Handbook for Boys, the BSA’s manual for life.

Before you balk at the notion, read this piece published earlier this month in the renowned New York Times Sunday Book Review.

In it, Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Distinguished Eagle Scout, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard professor, calls the Handbook a “classic of literature.” He defines that as “writing that stirs the soul” and “contributes to the growth of a civilization.”

Wilson’s referring to the fourth edition of the Handbook, published from 1940 to 1948. That’s the one he read as a Scout.

Wilson didn’t have the easiest childhood. He moved a lot, attending 13 public schools in nine localities. He read just two books cover to cover in high school: the BSA Handbook and The Virginian. He wasn’t a great student and got mediocre grades.

But, Wilson writes, the Handbook for Boys stepped in where his secondary education fell short.

If you read Wilson’s robust Wikipedia page you’ll get a sense of all the man has accomplished in his life. He’s one of the most prestigious Eagle Scouts in history.

To think that he credits Scouting and the Handbook for Boys with forming his life is extremely high praise. He even writes that he used some of the book’s teaching techniques with his students at Harvard.

My favorite part of “A Manual for Life” by Dr. E.O. Wilson

The entire piece is worth reading, but this was my favorite part:

The “Handbook for Boys” expresses the best of the American ethos as it was at the middle of the 20th century, unparalleled for its brilliance of pedagogy and its uncompromising declaration of democratic ideals. It espouses individualism, responsibility, empowerment and the philosophy of taking hold and learning by doing.

In its 680 pages are to be found the essentials of camping, field cooking, swimming, lifesaving, first aid, semaphore and Morse code, and seaworthy knot-tying; mapmaking, agriculture, patriotic and popular campsite songs; and, not least, elements of American history, including emphasis on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. In the midst of all this are incomplete but serviceable field guides to North American trees, birds, insects and mammals, and to the planets and constellations. The book is true to the maxim “Teach me, I forget; show me, I remember; involve me, I understand.”

The best thing is that’s as true of the 1940s edition as it is of the edition today’s Scouts use. Speaking of …

What about Scouting today?

Most of Wilson’s review applies to his time in Scouting in the 1940s, but he does take time to discuss the state of the Boy Scouts of America in 2014:

I’m well aware that to many, the Boy Scouts seem unsophisticated and outdated. But I ask doubters at least to consider this: If asked to decide who would be both successful in life and exceptionally useful to society, the graduating senior of an elite New England prep school or an Eagle Scout in Kansas, I’d vote for the Eagle Scout.

See also

This post over at Scouting Newsroom


Thanks to Silver Buffalo recipient Neil Lupton for sharing this story with me. Lupton, I must point out, had the honor of hanging the Distinguished Eagle Scout medal around Wilson’s neck.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.