The GQ Mugging Inquest is a study in masculine culture, specifically the art of bonding conversation between African-American men of the generation that came of age in the 1960’s and 70s.

From early 2013 through late 2014, the author, an urban violence researcher and novelist, visited one Northeast Baltimore bar where a handful of middle-aged men gathered to speak of sports, their work day, the current news, and of their youth. The GQ Mugging Inquest is his impression of their interesting, entertaining, and ultimately manly, art of conversation.