David Brooks

David Brooks is an opinion columnist at The New York Times who writes about political, social and cultural trends, the clash of ideas and the always tricky subject of moral formation. He has worked at a variety of magazines and newspapers ranging from National Review, Newsweek and The Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal and The Times.

He has authored several books, including Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There; The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, a New York Times best seller; and most recently, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

Brooks graduated from The University of Chicago with a degree in history, and has taught at Yale, Duke and The University of Chicago, and I am a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Brooks tries to present a reasonable voice in the midst of all the bitterness and strife of public life, living out a philosophical tradition that has its roots in the thought of people like David Hume, Edmund Burke and Alexander Hamilton, sitting in the tension between humility and audacity, fair-mindedness and compassion.