Abstract
The article firstly presents modes of dealing with the concept of crisis of masculinity in both Czech and foreign historiography. In the international context is the term associated with the particular social processes and phenomena, which have destabilized the existing understanding of masculinity and opened space for its redefinition.
In the Czech context is it used rather vaguely and it is not recognizable which kind of social processes it should represent, because up to the present day there doesn''t exist no work, which would give an empirical evidence that would allowed us to be sure that crisis of masculinity had ever take shape in the Czech history.This contribution attempts to change this situation and focuses on ideas of masculinity in the Základy junáctví (the fist handbook for designed for Czech scouts). The attention is focused on the scout movement, because foreign historians consider its establishment as one of the manifestations of the masculinity crisis.
Among the 31 authors of the Czech handbook six views of masculinity, respectively imagines of an ideal scout are detected. Four of the six views perceive scouting as a reaction to the general crisis of culture and especially as a crisis of education, no matter wheter the scout should be "new man" or "traditional man." The crisis of masculinity can certainly not be regarded as a phenomenon, which would be valid for the whole society.
We should ask in which areas we could reveal it and why exactly there.