“With a central focus on gender and masculinities, The American Soul Rush explores the concept of spiritual privilege and Esalen’s foundational influence on the growth and spread of diverse spiritual practice. It explores the ways that men construct personal spirituality and share it with others, while most work on gender and alternative religion examines women’s roles. The book describes the people, narratives, and relationships at the Institute that produced persistent, almost accidental inequalities in order to illuminate the ways that gender is always central to religion and spirituality.”

New York University Press, 240 pages