His latest release, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, debuted on the New York Times and Amazon bestseller lists and has maintained spots on both for many weeks. It was deemed both “a hands-on guide to making meaningful human connections” and “yet another inspirational roadmap to building strong moral character and achieving authentic self-actualization” by Kirkus. Brooks makes the case that at the center of any healthy and thriving business, organization, community, or nation is the crucial skill of being able to see and value other people. Written to speak to audiences of all kinds, How to Know a Person is his attempt to repair America’s torn social fabric by giving us the tools we need to move beyond division and polarization and connect with others on an innately human level.
In The Second Mountain, he makes the case that a life of meaning and purpose is built on four major commitments: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. He argues that to repair the societal damage done by hyper-individuality, we must embrace interdependence and put commitment at the center of our lives. The Road to Character is a soul-searching account that speaks to the necessity of cultivating our deepest inner lives rather than focusing solely on success and external achievement, distinguishing between what Brooks calls résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. Backed by multidisciplinary research from neuroscience, psychology, and sociology, the #1 bestseller The Social Animal rejects society’s overemphasis on rationalism and individuality and drives home the idea that our minds, emotions, and social context have a more profound impact on our beliefs, decisions, and actions than we’d like to accept. When we adopt this more nuanced view of human behavior, we can better understand politics and culture and ultimately lead more meaningful lives.
Brooks’s earlier books cemented his style of “comic sociology,” offering observations on how we live and “the water we swim in” that are as witty and entertaining as they are revealing and insightful. Bobos in Paradise, his first bestseller, is a comedic yet sincere reflection on the budding class of “bobos”—a generation of elites at the intersection of bourgeois capitalism and bohemian counterculture. On Paradise Drive explores what Brooks sees as a uniquely American “future-mindedness” that drives our frenzied work ethic and inability to relax.
In an effort to practice what he preaches in his writing, Brooks founded and currently chairs Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute. Weave explores what it means to build connection and weave a rich social fabric in our schools, workplaces, and every other part of life. Weave’s mission is to invite everyone to start living like a weaver and shift our culture from one that values achievement and individual success to one that finds value in deep relationships and community success.