July, William II 19(?)(?)–
William July II 19(?)(?)–
Author
William July II belongs to a new genre of African-American writers of popular inspirational literature. July’s two books, Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance, and Understanding the Tin Man: Why So Many Men Avoid Intimacy, provide readers with a blueprint for achieving solid, positive relationships. Though July began his career writing for African-American magazines, his works are not specifically geared toward the blackcommunity,but rather at a universal audience. He believes his ideas resonate with female readers in particular. As he wrote on his Internet site, williamjuly.com, he considers these books “great resources for women because they reveal many of the deep passions and emotions men have, but often conceal from women for various reasons. The value of these books for men is found in the way I candidly share my experiences (and the experiences/ opinions of other men) to demonstrate the fact that a man is at his best in life when he learns to be masculine and sensitive too.”
Young Writer
July always liked to write, and even attended the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, from which he graduated with a certificate in creative writing. “My interest in writing was a passion I had as a boy,” he recalled on his Internet site. “I’ve always enjoyed writingand my teachers always encouraged me to keep writing. One of my college professors even told me I should be a writer. To make a long story short, I didn’t pursue it as a career because I, like many people, put my dreams on hold to pursue what I thought was a ‘real’ job.” July was ambitious even as a teenager: he founded his own insurance agency at the age of 18, and earned a real estate license before he even graduated from Texas Southern University. For several years, he juggled a number of jobs, including his real-estate business, teaching at Houston Community College, and beginning a career in law enforcement.
By the early 1990s, July was workingas a patrol officer in Houston and selling homes in his off-duty hours. He described this era as an extremely stressful, with no time for a real relationship or even to eat properly or exercise. Though July gave the impression of financial success, “I could feel myself unraveling inside,” he wrote in his second book, Understanding the Tin Man. “I was tired, unfulfilled, and burning out fast.” When his father suffered a heart attack, and he found himself lecturing his elder at the bedside for leading a lifestyle that was not that different from his own, July realized that it was likely that he, too, would be in the same cardiac-care unit some day. He resolved to make some changes in his life.
Writing As Catharsis
For some time, July had been frustrated with his relationships and his inability to connect on an intimate level with a girlfriend. He realized that much of it was his own fault, and began thinking about the reasons that had brought him to such a state. He found catharsis through writing about it, and began submiting
At a Glance…
Born to William and Alice July; married Jamey Lacy; stepchildren: Laney. Education: Earned B,A. from Texas Southern University; attended the Harris County Sheriff’s Academy.
Career : Founder of insurance agency; became realestate broker; Houston Community College, instructor in photography, real estate, and publishing; servedasa patrol officer in the Houston metropolitan area, early 1990s; aide to Houston city council member; writer, 1996-; motivational speaker, 1997-; teacher of creative writing in theWriters in the SchoolsProgram, Houston, TX.
Awards : Recipient of several community awards for volunteer work.
Addresses : Office –Positive Energy Company, P.O. Box 62027, Houston, TX 77025-2027.
articles to publications like Essence and Today’s Black Woman. The success he found led him to attempt a full-length book that he called Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance.
July published his debut himself in 1996, and within a few months it was appearing on the lists of the most popular works among an African-American readership. Soon, July was offered a contract with the publishing giant Doubleday, and expanded Brothers, Lust, and Love for a 1998 edition. In it, July argues that soul should be the basis for a relationship, not sex or financial status. He discusses relationships among African-Americans, and touches upon the particular situation of the black male, who must combat a tough array of stereotypes on a daily basis before he can even begin to feel like a loving, capable person. The work also discusses inter-ethnic dating, and features a number of lists designed to provide insight, such as ten things women do that cause men to break up with them, and ten myths about romance—which July then convincingly debunks.
Picked Up by Doubleday
The success of Brothers, Lust, and Love led to a secondary career for July as a motivational speaker, and he was gratified to meet so many people, men and women alike, who had learned from his book. Some of the experiences they shared became part of his second book, Understanding the Tin Man: Why So Many Men Avoid Intimacy, published by Doubleday in 1999. The work is aimed at men of all color, and centers around what July calls the “Tin Man“paradox. The inspiration came from the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and the book that preceded it. One of the characters is a woodsman whose axe became cursed and turned on him; he eventually cut out his own heart with it. In the film, the Tin Man is part of a trio who accompany a Kansas farm girl, Dorothy, to visit a wizard who will grant their deepest wishes. The Tin Man wants a heart. “The lack of a heart represents our separation from our completeness,” July writes in the book. “We strive to master the physical, external sideof ourselves, while neglecting the inner man–the part of us that needs intimate and strong human relationships t o thrive.”
In Understanding the Tin Man, July goes on to claim that cultural and social conditioning incite men to be strong, fearless, and even manipulate others; such expectations rob men of their ability to connect intimately with another human being. He wrote about the same subject, which described as “macho-cide,” in an article for Essence. In the article, he recounted an incident in his own life a few years back when he was plagued by a persistent cough. “I refused to go to the doctor because I thought as a man I should be able to tough it out,” July confessed. “As it turned out, my heart was enveloped in a huge balloon of fluid, and I was slowly suffocating.” Men, July observed, usually win praise for behaviors that help them avoid real intimacy–a driven, ambitious man is commended as a financial success, while a Casanova–type is esteemed for his ability to seduce women. “We must re-create ourselves by first realizing that our human frailties and our dependence on the love of others are actually the building blocks of spiritualpower,”he wrote in Essence.
Personal Insight
July calls himself a recovering Tin Man, and in his second book recounts his previous lifestyle and the emotionally shallow relationships he engaged in that seemed to be based purely on sex. It was only after he had been dating the woman who would become his future wife, and finally recognized the battle of two voices inside him, Fear and Love, that an epiphany of sorts occurred. “The Tin Man’s avoidance of intimacy is really about fear, “he writes in Understanding the Tin Man. “He’s afraid his feelings will make him vulnerable and leave him open to getting hurt. He’s afraid that expressing his feelings may not look masculine. Or he could be afraid because he’s never gotten to know his feelings enough to trust them.”
July’s book offers a number of ideas, personal anecdotes, and even sports analogies to help readers understand the Tin Man within themselves. He also devotes a good deal of text to recognizing a Tin Woman. "Reality Checks” on every few pages highlight key ideas. Again, July provides lists, such as the Five Greatest Fears Men Have About Intimacyand Relationships. The last point on this list cites “being held emotionally hostage” as one of men’s biggest fears, and he points out that what they perceive to be the loss of personal freedom inside a committed relationship is one of the toughest myths to overcome. July notes that men are conditioned to believe that a true masculine personality emerges only through bachelorhood, a state that males dream about in much the same way that women fantasize about their wedding day. Understanding the Tin Man received a positive review from Publishers Weekly, which found it “packed with solid insights” and a work that “reinforces his position as a cool-headed referee in the battle of the sexes.”
July is writing a third book, and working toward a theology degree. The recipient of numerous local awards for community service, he visits elementary schools in Houston as part of the city’s Writers in the Schools Program to teach creative writing. He is married and a stepfather to a young ballet dancer who figures prominently in his anecdote of the night that he finally slayed the Fear dragon in his head. A popular motivational speaker, July has even appeared on national television. He answers questions on his web site, but dismissed the idea that he is an “expert” on the topic of relationships and intimacy. “Nobody can really be an expert at telling other people how to live their lives or how to conduct their relationships because we’re all still learning in this life, day by day,” July asserts. “The strength of my writing and speaking comes from the fact that I’m the every-day ‘guy next door.’ People can relate to me because I’m not analyzing them or preaching at them. I discuss issues with my readers and audiences the way two friends would talk and exchange ideas.”
Selected writings
Brothers, Lust, and Love: Thoughts on Manhood, Sex, and Romance, Khufu Books, 1996, Doubleday, 1998.
Understanding the Tin Man: Why So Many Men Avoid Intimacy, Doubleday, 1999.
The Complete Guide to Getting Any Book Published, Khufu Books, 1999.
Sources
Essence, March, 2000.
Jet, March 30, 1998, pp. 15-17.
Publishers Weekly, April 6, 1998, p. 67; December 13, 1999, p. 74.
Other
Additional information for this profile was obtained on-line at http://www.williamjuly.com.
—Carol Brennan
William II
William II
The last of the Hohenzollern rulers, William II (1859-1941) was emperor of Germany and king of Prussia from 1888 until his forced abdication in 1918.
In the crucial years before World War I, William II was the most powerful and most controversial figure in Europe. His domineering personality and the comparatively vague political structure of the post-Bismarck state combined to make his reign over the most advanced country in Europe both authoritarian and archaic.
William was born on Jan. 27, 1859. He was the son of Frederick III and Princess Victoria of England. William's views of his prerogatives were strongly influenced by his Prussian military education, amidst the subservience and flattery of his fellow cadets. After completing his studies at the University of Bonn, William entered the army and in 1881 married Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig Holstein.
William was an intelligent, dashing, impulsive young man who loved military display and believed in the divine nature of kingship; his strong personality overcame the serious handicap (for a horseman) of a withered left arm. His father found William immature, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck considered him a more acceptable successor to his grandfather (and to Frederick the Great) than his liberal father. Conservative circles in Germany breathed a sigh of relief when the death of William I in 1888 was quickly followed by that of Frederick III. William II ascended the throne that year.
Differences between the young kaiser and the aging Bismarck soon were public knowledge. Serious questions of policy separated them, such as whether to renew the anti-Socialist legislation on the books since 1878, and in foreign affairs, whether to keep the alliance with Russia as well as with Austria, as Bismarck insisted. But basically the split was a personal one, the question being which man was to rule Germany. William forced Bismarck to resign in 1890, and thereafter he steered his own course.
It seemed to mark the beginning of a new era. William was the representative of a new generation that had grown up since German unification, and he was at home in the world of technology and of neoromantic German nationalism. Indeed, William gave the impression of dynamism. He was always in the public eye and caught, for a time, the imagination of his country. But he cared little for the day-to-day problems of government, and his "policies" were often shallow, short-lived, and contradictory. Thus the "Labor Emperor" of the early years of the reign soon became the implacable enemy of the Social Democratic working-class movement. In foreign policy his inconsistencies were even more glaring. England and Russia, in particular, were alternately wooed and rebuffed; both ultimately ended up as foes. Sometimes the Kaiser's sounder instincts were overridden by his advisers, as in the Morocco crisis of 1905, which William, who was essentially peaceful in intent, had not wished to provoke. But mainly his mistakes were his own.
Foreign opinion concerning the Kaiser was much more hostile than German opinion, and his often bellicose and pompous utterances did much to tarnish Germany's image abroad. Nevertheless, World War I and postwar depictions of him as the incarnation of all that was evil in Germany were grossly unfair. So little was he the martial leader of a militaristic nation that his authority in fact faded during World War I, and the military assumed increasing control. Belatedly, William tried to rally a warweary nation with promises of democratic reforms, but at the end of the war the German Republic was proclaimed without serious opposition. William abdicated in November 1918.
After his abdication William lived in quiet retirement in Doorn, Holland, not actively involved with the movement for a restoration of the monarchy. He died in Doorn on June 4, 1941.
Further Reading
Most studies of William II have been in a popular vein. Two good recent biographies are Virginia Cowles, The Kaiser (1963), and Michael Balfour, The Kaiser and His Time (1964). William's autobiographical My Early Life (trans. 1926) ends at 1888. □