How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

David Brooks is a political and cultural commentator, longtime columnist for The New York Times, and author of several nonfiction works that grapple with questions of character, morality, and meaning. The most famous and influential of these remains Bobos in Paradise (2000), which described the rise of a new managerial class that Brooks termed “bourgeois bohemians,” or “bobos,” marrying the social idealism of the 1960s with the capitalist self-interest of the 1980s. He holds a degree in history from the University of Chicago and, in addition to his New York Times column, has worked at publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and The Atlantic. He began his career as a political conservative at the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard—a magazine devoted to neoconservative values—but he supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election and has since shifted toward what he identifies as the political center. His work has often reflected a blend of conservative and communitarian values, though his more recent writings—including How to Know a Person—signal a philosophical turn toward relational and empathetic ethics. Brooks has also taught at Yale University and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.