The Road to Character

The Road to Character

<b>#1 <i>NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER • David Brooks challenges us to rebalance the scales between the focus on external success—“résumé virtues”—and our core principles.</b><br> <b> </b><br> <b>NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY <i>THE ECONOMIST</i></b><br> <b><i> </i></b><br> With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his <i>New York Times</i> column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In <i>The Social Animal,</i> he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in <i>The Road to Character, </i>he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives.<br><br> Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.<br><br> Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, <i>The Road to Character</i> provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.<br><br> “Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.”<br><br><b>Praise for <i>The Road to Character</i></b><br><br>“A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story.”<b>—<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b><br><br> “This profound and eloquent book is written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance.”<b>—Andrew Solomon, author of <i>Far from the Tree</i> and <i>The Noonday Demon</i></b><br><br> “A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin.”<b><i>—The Guardian<br></i></b><br>“Original and eye-opening . . . Brooks is a normative version of Malcolm Gladwell, culling from a wide array of scientists and thinkers to weave an idea bigger than the sum of its parts.”<b>—<i>USA Today</i></b>