Testosterone: An Unauthorized Biography

An Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal WinnerA Progressive Book of the YearA TechCrunch Favorite Read of the Year "Deeply researched and thoughtful."--Nature  "An extended exercise in myth busting."--Outside   "A critique of both popular and scientific understandings of the hormone, and how they have been used to explain, or even defend, inequalities of power."--The Observer Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready culprit for everything from stock market crashes to the overrepresentation of men in prisons. But your testosterone level doesn't actually predict your appetite for risk, sex drive, or athletic prowess. It isn't the biological essence of manliness--in fact, it isn't even a male sex hormone. So what is it, and how did we come to endow it with such superhuman powers? T's story begins when scientists first went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. Over time, it provided a handy rationale for countless behaviors--from the boorish to the enviable. Testoste