Author Guide · Social Commentary & Character
Books Written by
David Brooks wrote an opinion column for The New York Times from September 2003 to January 2026, twice a week for more than twenty-two years, and has argued politics on PBS NewsHour on Friday evenings since 2001. His books run on a different track. The first two are comic sociology about the American upper middle class: the “bobos”, or bourgeois bohemians, and the suburbs they moved to. From The Social Animal (2011) onwards he turns to character, commitment and, in The Second Mountain (2019), his own divorce and religious life. In February 2026 he moved to The Atlantic and a fellowship at Yale. This guide covers his six key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 key books · 2000–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
David Brooks has written six books. The best known are The Road to Character (2015), a number one New York Times bestseller, Bobos in Paradise (2000), The Second Mountain (2019) and How to Know a Person (2023). Start with How to Know a Person, his most practical book, which needs none of the others; read The Road to Character for the idea he is best known for, the gap between résumé virtues and eulogy virtues.
Where to Start with David Brooks
If you want his most practical book
→ How to Know a Person (2023) — how to listen, ask and actually see another person.
If you want the idea he is best known for
→ The Road to Character (2015) — résumé virtues versus eulogy virtues.
If you want his comic early sociology
→ Bobos in Paradise (2000) — the book that coined “bobos”.
If you want his most personal book
→ The Second Mountain (2019) — his divorce, his faith and the life after achievement.
6 David Brooks Books, in Order
Bobos in Paradise
Brooks coins “bobos”, bourgeois bohemians, for an educated American elite that merged the counterculture of the 1960s with the money of the 1980s and shows its status through taste rather than display: expensive kitchens, organic food, travel that feels like self-improvement. He calls the method “comic sociology”. In 2004 a Philadelphia magazine fact-check found many of his claims about middle America misleading; Brooks replied that the book was partly tongue-in-cheek.
On Paradise Drive
A tour of the new American exurbs, office parks and big-box stores that ends in an argument: that Americans, mocked abroad as shallow and materialistic, are driven by an almost religious belief in a better future just ahead of them. It is the companion to Bobos in Paradise, with the same comic tone and a more hopeful conclusion.
The Social Animal
Brooks follows two invented characters, Harold and Erica, from birth to death and uses their lives to tour research in neuroscience, psychology and sociology. His argument is that unconscious emotion and social ties, not rational choice, shape most of what makes a life go well. It reached number three on the Publishers Weekly non-fiction list in April 2011.
The Road to Character
Brooks contrasts “résumé virtues”, the skills that bring success at work, with “eulogy virtues”, the qualities people talk about at your funeral, and argues modern culture has forgotten the second. Each chapter is a portrait of someone who built character through struggle, among them Frances Perkins, Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, George Eliot and Saint Augustine. It was a number one New York Times bestseller and one of The Economist’s books of the year.
The Second Mountain
The first mountain is the climb to personal success; the second, which people often find after a crisis, is a life given to commitments: a marriage, a vocation, a faith and a community. Brooks writes openly about his own first mountain, the end of his first marriage in 2013, and his slow movement towards Christian faith while still feeling Jewish.
How to Know a Person
A practical book about attention: how to listen, which questions to ask, and how to stay with someone through grief or depression. Brooks divides people into “Illuminators”, who make others feel seen, and “Diminishers”, who do not, and draws on psychology, neuroscience, theatre and his own friendships. It was a New York Times bestseller; the paperback followed in October 2025.
In What Order to Read David Brooks
None of the books depends on another, so you can start anywhere. Read in order, they show a writer changing his subject: the first two describe how a class of Americans lives, The Social Animal asks what science says about a good life, and the last three ask how a person should live.
The last three work as a set. The Road to Character is about the inner life, The Second Mountain about commitment to others, and How to Know a Person about the everyday skill those commitments need. If you only read one of his early books, make it Bobos in Paradise.
A reading path
1. How to Know a Person (2023)
2. The Road to Character (2015)
3. The Second Mountain (2019)
4. Bobos in Paradise (2000)
Everything Else David Brooks Published
Beyond the 6 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Edited anthologies
2
2 books · 1996–2012
- 1996Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writingan anthology of conservative writing, edited while he was at The Weekly Standard
- 2012The Best American Essays 2012guest editor of the annual series
The years · 1961–2026
Quick facts about David Brooks
- Known for
- Twenty-two years as a New York Times opinion columnist and a quarter-century of Friday-night political commentary on PBS NewsHour, and the idea of résumé virtues versus eulogy virtues from The Road to Character.
- 1961
- Born in Toronto, Canada
- 2003
- Opinion columnist at The New York Times
- 2026
- Leaves the Times for The Atlantic and Yale
- Born
- 11 August 1961, Toronto, Canada; went to Radnor High School, Pennsylvania
- Education
- University of Chicago, BA in history
- Worked
- The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, then The New York Times (2003–2026)
- Television
- Political commentator on PBS NewsHour since 2001
- Since 2026
- Staff writer at The Atlantic; Presidential Senior Fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs
- Married
- Jane Hughes (1986–2013); the writer and editor Anne Snyder (2017)
The red mark is 2015: The Road to Character, the book that turned him from social observer to moral writer.
How David Brooks Writes: The Columnist’s Method
Brooks started as a reporter and a satirist, and his first books read like it: Bobos in Paradise catalogues kitchens, catalogues and wedding announcements, and he cheerfully calls the method “comic sociology”. He generalises boldly from small details, which is where the charm lies and where critics, notably the 2004 Philadelphia fact-check, have caught him out.
From The Social Animal onwards he works as a synthesiser. He reads widely in psychology, philosophy and theology, then builds each book from short portraits or invented characters and turns the research into numbered ideas and memorable pairs: résumé and eulogy virtues, the first and second mountain, Illuminators and Diminishers. The later books also use his own life, his career, his divorce and his faith, as evidence.
His tone is that of the newspaper column: short chapters, plain sentences, a clear thesis repeated until it sticks, and a habit of quoting other writers generously. For writers who think about character and connection the same way, see Authors like David Brooks.
Watch
David Brooks on The Second Mountain and a more meaningful life
David Brooks gives a talk and reading from The Second Mountain at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., hosted by Politics and Prose, discussing how commitments can lead to a more meaningful life. From the official Politics and Prose channel.
Frequently asked questions about David Brooks’s books
How many books has David Brooks written?
Six, all non-fiction: Bobos in Paradise (2000), On Paradise Drive (2004), The Social Animal (2011), The Road to Character (2015), The Second Mountain (2019) and How to Know a Person (2023). He also edited two anthologies, listed at the bottom of this page.
What are David Brooks’s books in order?
Bobos in Paradise (2000), On Paradise Drive (2004), The Social Animal (2011), The Road to Character (2015), The Second Mountain (2019) and How to Know a Person (2023).
Where should I start with David Brooks?
With How to Know a Person (2023): it is his most practical book and needs none of the others. If you want the idea he is best known for, read The Road to Character (2015) next.
What is David Brooks’s most famous book?
The Road to Character (2015), a number one New York Times bestseller, known for its distinction between résumé virtues and eulogy virtues. Bobos in Paradise (2000) made his name and added “bobo” to the language.
Who is David Brooks?
A Canadian-born American journalist and commentator, born in Toronto in 1961. He was an opinion columnist for The New York Times from 2003 to 2026, has been a political commentator on PBS NewsHour since 2001, and is the author of six books, including The Road to Character and How to Know a Person.
What is How to Know a Person by David Brooks about?
It is about the skill of seeing other people well: paying attention, asking better questions, and staying with someone through hard times. Brooks contrasts “Illuminators”, who make others feel seen, with “Diminishers”, who do not. It was published in October 2023 and became a New York Times bestseller.
What are résumé virtues and eulogy virtues?
The central idea of The Road to Character. Résumé virtues are the skills you bring to the job market; eulogy virtues are the ones people mention at your funeral, such as kindness, courage and honesty. Brooks argues that modern culture rewards the first and neglects the second.
Where is David Brooks now?
At The Atlantic, which he joined as a staff writer in February 2026 to write and host a weekly video podcast, and at Yale, where he became the first Presidential Senior Fellow at the Jackson School of Global Affairs, a five-year appointment. Both moves were announced on 29 January 2026.
Why did David Brooks leave The New York Times?
He gave no single reason. His last Times column appeared at the end of January 2026, after more than twenty-two years, as The Atlantic and Yale announced his new roles. The Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury called him “our resident cartographer of the American soul.”
Is David Brooks still on PBS NewsHour?
Yes. He has been a regular political commentator on PBS NewsHour since 2001, now alongside Jonathan Capehart, and continued to appear on the programme after leaving the Times in 2026.
Is David Brooks a conservative?
He calls himself a moderate Republican and a Burkean moderate; others describe him as centrist or moderate conservative. He began at conservative publications such as National Review and The Weekly Standard, but has been a sharp critic of Donald Trump, and in 2024 said he was rooting for the Democrats about 70 percent of the time.
Is David Brooks Jewish or Christian?
He was raised Jewish, and in The Second Mountain (2019) he describes coming to Christian faith in the years after his 2013 divorce. He has said he feels both Jewish and Christian, rather than having left one for the other.
Is David Brooks in the Epstein files?
He appears in photos, not as a subject of any allegation. In November 2025 he wrote a Times column, “The Epstein Story? Count Me Out”, dismissing the furore as an extension of QAnon. In December 2025 House Oversight Committee Democrats released photos from the Epstein estate that showed Brooks at a 2011 dinner Epstein attended. A Times spokesperson said it was a widely attended dinner and that Brooks had no contact with Epstein before or after it. Critics faulted him for not disclosing the dinner in the column.
Who was David Brooks’s first wife?
Jane Hughes, whom he married in 1986; she converted to Judaism and took the name Sarah Brooks. They divorced in November 2013. Brooks writes about the end of the marriage in The Second Mountain.
Who is David Brooks married to?
The writer and editor Anne Snyder, whom he married in 2017. She had been his research assistant while he wrote The Road to Character.
How old is David Brooks?
He was born on 11 August 1961 in Toronto, so he turned 65 in 2026.
Footnotes
- David Brooks (commentator) — Wikipedia
- David Brooks joins The Atlantic after 22 years at The New York Times — TheWrap, 2026
- A pundit’s next act — Yale Alumni Magazine, 2026
- David Brooks and the Epstein photos — The Intercept, 2025
- How to Know a Person — Penguin Random House
- The Road to Character — Apple Books (publisher description)
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“We are all stumblers, and the beauty and meaning of life are in the stumbling.”
— David Brooks, The Road to Character (2015)
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