Description
Book SynopsisThe No. 1 New York Times bestseller on the secret to leading a good life
We live in a Big Me culture: universities and businesses alike reward goal-oriented superstars and those who self-promote are most likely to thrive. But what does this say about us?
David Brooks argues that our hunger for wealth and status is eroding our ability to create meaningful inner lives. To show us how to live better, he looks at people whose sense of humility was fundamental to their success. What they all understood was a simple but counterintuitive truth: in order to fulfil yourself, you must learn how to forget yourself.
Trade ReviewThe Road to Character feels particularly pertinent to some immediate issues right now: the level of public cynicism about politicians and "experts", witnessed in the catastrophic EU referendum, or the bland managerialism that is replacing discussion about the core values of our educational system -- Rowan Williams * New Statesman *
Profound and eloquent . . . written with moral urgency and philosophical elegance -- Andrew Solomon, author of 'Far From the Tree'
A powerful, haunting book that works its way beneath your skin . . . worth logging off Facebook to read it -- Oliver Burkeman * Guardian *
Everyone concerned about the good life should read this book -- Tim Montgomerie * The Times *
A hyper-readable, lucid, often richly detailed human story . . . In the age of the selfie, Brooks wishes to exhort us back to a semiclassical sense of self-restraint, self-erasure and self-suspicion * New York Times Book Review *
[Brooks] emerges as a countercultural leader . . . The literary achievement of
The Road to Character is inseparable from the virtues of its author . . . The highlight of the material is the quality of the author's moral and spiritual judgments -- Michael Gerson * Washington Post *
