An exploration of the production of male identities in the lives of twenty-two transsexuals - people who have changed their sex from female to male. The author relates the compelling personal narratives of his subjects to the historical evolution emergence of FTM as an identity category.

His account of the history of endocrinology and medical technologies for transforming bodies demonstrates that the "family resemblance" between transsexuals and intersexuals was a necessary postulate for medical intervention into the lives of the emerging FTMs. The book also explores the historical evolution emergence of the category of FTM transsexual as distinguished from the category of lesbian woman and the resultant "border disputes" over identity between the two groups. Rubin complements this approach with phenomenological concepts that stress the importance of lived experience and the individual's capacity for knowledge and action. An important contribution to several fields, including sociology of the body, queer theorygender, and masculinity, human development, and the history of science, Self-Made Men will be of interest to anyone who has seriously pondered what it means to be a man and how men become men.