The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement - Hardcover

Brooks, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 140006760X ISBN 13: 9781400067602

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2011

Synopsis

With unequaled insight and brio, David Brooks, the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bobos in Paradise, has long explored and explained the way we live. Now, with the intellectual curiosity and emotional wisdom that make his columns among the most read in the nation, Brooks turns to the building blocks of human flourishing in a multilayered, profoundly illuminating work grounded in everyday life.

This is the story of how success happens. It is told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica—how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed. Distilling a vast array of information into these two vividly realized characters, Brooks illustrates a fundamental new understanding of human nature. A scientific revolution has occurred—we have learned more about the human brain in the last thirty years than we had in the previous three thousand. The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind—not a dark, vestigial place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain’s work gets done. This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms: the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made. The natural habitat of The Social Animal.

Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to school; from the “odyssey years” that have come to define young adulthood to the high walls of poverty; from the nature of attachment, love, and commitment, to the nature of effective leadership. He reveals the deeply social aspect of our very minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.

The Social Animal is a moving and nuanced intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. Impossible to put down, it is an essential book for our time, one that will have broad social impact and will change the way we see ourselves and the world.

About this title

Review:

The book everyone's talking about --The Guardian

A fascinating study of the unconscious mind and its impact on our lives... --The Economist

Brooks gets inside the head, explains how the brain works... it s like frieze-framing a novel and discussing the motivation of the characters. Fascinating... --The Evening Standard

At Westminster they should be listening hard. --The Times

A spirited and engaging book, true in its ambition and liveliness... it offers a sense of the very real limits of the assumptions that we westerners bring to life, and the possibility of radically better, more 'realistic' ways of living. --The Observer

A well-written and engaging tour d'horizon of much of the literature on brain development, male-female relationships and what factors cause people to live happy live... Readers will learn a great deal. --The Washington Times

David Brooks is one of the most prominent public intellectuals of our time, known for, among other things, his playful dissections of the lifestyles of the American elite. Here he is chasing bigger game. The Social Animal is about the modern life of our species. It explores attachment, parenting, schooling, love, family, culture, achievement, marriage, politics, morality, aging, death and much more... Brooks is a sharp, clear and often very funny writer. --The Washington Post

Sensational... The book is appealing in many ways, not the least of which is Brooks' ability to synthesize vast amounts of research and present it in a fashion that calls to mind the hilarious social satire of Tom Wolfe... it aims to change our understanding of how we function and conduct our lives. At the least, it will deepen your regard for the marvel that is the human brain. --The Philadelphia Inquirer

An uncommonly brilliant blend of sociology, intellect and allegory. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Truly the best road map for living one's life that I have ever read... It should absolutely be on the required reading list of every MBA program... Trust me, this is a book of 'large ideas'. --Kansas City Business Journal

Brooks has done well to draw such vivid attention to the wide implications of the accumulated research on the mind and the triggers of human behaviour. --The Economist

This is a spirited and engaging book, true in its ambition and liveliness. Brooks writes excellently. The Social Animal offers a sense of the very real limits of the assumptions that we westerners bring to life, and the possibility of radically better, more "realistic" ways of living. --Ben Rogers

The most stimulating book I read this year... The implications for social policy are dramatic --Brian Ashcroft, Book of the Year - Scotland on Sunday

About the Author:

David Brooks writes an op-ed column for The New York Times. Previously, he has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly, and an op-ed editor at The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a commentator on PBS NewsHour and contributes regularly to Meet the Press and NPR’s All Things Considered. He is the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense. His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Times Literary Supplement, Commentary, The Public Interest, and many other magazines. David Brooks lives in Maryland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 140006760X
• ISBN 13: 9781400067602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424