A few years ago, I heard someone speak disdainfully of the great writers of Western Civilization as a bunch of “dead white guys.” This person, a non-guy, was trying to be funny but couldn’t carry it off. It sounded then, and still sounds to me now, like a trite cliche – and, further, it was clear that this pseudo-hipster did not have the chops to be rating, let alone dismissing, cultural giants like Shakespeare, Dante, Dostoyoevsky, and the rest of the boys.

That being said, Stephen Hunt’s The White Guy: A Field Guide is a pleasure to read, with a tone that’s funny and self-deprecating – and a narrative informed by the perspective of Melanee, his African-American wife. The book is enlivened by witty lists (a typically white guy form of expression) and sharp and timely writing:

"That’s why the 2008 U.S. presidential election is so much fun. The country finally saw what a bunch of white guys sitting around in their corner offices in Washington could do to the world – absolutely wreck it – and they came to their senses. Whether they elect a non-guy, a non-white guy or Ralph Nader, all I know is that Americans seem about ready to hand over the keys of the country to the first non-white guy or non-guy President. It’s about time, too."

That’s right – just as it’s about time (almost summer, the cottage beckoning) for a close, sympathetic, somewhat anthropological look at the species responsible for almost everything that’s wrong with this world: slavery, apartheid, colonialism, the glass ceiling, golf and Muzak.