Arthur C. Brooks
Encyclopedia
Arthur C. Brooks is an American social scientist
and musician
. He is the president of the American Enterprise Institute
, a conservative think tank
. Brooks is best known for his work on the junctions between culture
, economics
, and politics
. Two of his popular volumes, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism and Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It, explore these themes in greater depth. He is a self-described independent
.
."
After high school, Brooks pursued a career as a professional French hornist, serving from 1983 to 1989 with the Annapolis Brass Quintet
in Baltimore
, from 1989 to 1992 as the associate principal French hornist with the City Orchestra of Barcelona
in Spain, and teaching from 1992 to 1995 at Lynn University
's Harid Conservatory of Music.
in New Jersey, a public university that offers distance and nontraditional education programs to working adults. He received a master's degree from Florida Atlantic University
in 1995 before pursuing a doctorate at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
, a public policy
program located at the RAND Corporation, where he was also a doctoral fellow.
After receiving his PhD
in policy analysis in 1998, Brooks continued to be affiliated with RAND, for which he produced a number of studies (see bibliography below; his articles appeared in dozens of academic journal
s as well), mostly of arts funding and orchestra
operations. But he began to dive into the junction of culture, politics, and economics that would come to be his trademark. "He kept his head down during the early years of his academic career, publishing the usual economics fare on philanthropy
—such as how tax rates and government spending affect giving," writes Ben Gose. Brooks himself said, "I made my academic career doing that stuff, but the whole time I knew I was missing something."
After a stint at Georgia State University
, Brooks landed at Syracuse University
in 2001. In 2005, he became a full professor, and he held the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business and Government Policy from 2007 to 2008. At Syracuse, Brooks held joint appointments in the public affairs and management schools.
. It is this work that launched him into the spotlight. During his time at Syracuse, Brooks continued his academic work on philanthropy and nonprofits, authoring several articles and textbooks.
. Originating in his research on philanthropy and drawing on survey data, he articulates a charity
gap between the 75 percent of Americans who donate to charitable causes and the rest who do not. Brooks argues that there are three cultural values that best predict charitable giving: religious participation, political views, and family structure. Ninety-one percent of people who identify themselves as religious are likely to give to charity, writes Brooks, as opposed to 66 percent of people who do not. The religious giving sector is just as likely to give to secular programs as it is to religious causes. Those who think government should do more to redistribute income are less likely to give to charitable causes, and those who believe the government has less of a role to play in income redistribution tend to give more. Finally, people who couple and raise children are more likely to give philanthropically than those who do not. The more children there are in a family, the more likely that a family will donate to charity. One of Brooks's most controversial findings was that political conservatives give more, despite having incomes that are on average 6 percent lower than liberals.
Brooks adopts what he calls a "polemic
" tone when offering recommendations, urging that philanthropic giving not be crowded out by government programs and that giving must be cultivated in families and communities. He admits being surprised by his conclusion: "These are not the sort of conclusions I ever thought I would reach when I started looking at charitable giving in graduate school, 10 years ago. I have to admit I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book."
Who Really Cares was widely reviewed and critiqued. Many commentators thought that Brooks played up the role of religion too much, arguing that a charity gap is largely erased when religious giving is not considered, despite the fact that Brooks addressed and forcefully disproved this argument in his research, as recorded in the book. Jim Lindgren writes, "Although the liberal v. conservative split is the hook for the book, the data are not nearly as stark as the hype surrounding the book might indicate."
In February 2007, after the release of Who Really Cares, Brooks briefed President George W. Bush
and first lady Laura Bush
on his findings. Later that year, Brooks joined the American Enterprise Institute
as a visiting scholar.
research entitled Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It. Drawing his title from the Bhutan
ese measurement of national well-being
, Brooks argues that the United States is one of the world's only other countries to enshrine happiness in its credo
. Yet, he argues, happiness tends to get discounted in public policy in favor of other priorities. Brooks reviews survey data to understand the contours of how happy individual Americans are and how individual happiness translates into nationwide satisfaction.
Brooks's findings were controversial. Conservatives, he writes, are twice as likely to call themselves "very happy" than liberals. Those with extreme political beliefs, right or left, tend to be happier than moderates—although their provocations lower happiness for the rest of society. Devout people of all religions are much happier than secularists. Parents are happier than the childless, even though their children often upset them. But child-rearing, Brooks writes, offers "meaning" to life, a sort of deep happiness that Aristotle
called eudaimonia
. Balancing freedom and order also brings optimal happiness, Brooks writes, because "too many moral choices leave us insecure and searching, unable to distinguish right from wrong, and thus miserable."
The second section of the book is dedicated to the economic dimensions of happiness. Opportunity breeds happiness, Brooks writes, and "efforts to diminish economic inequality--without creating economic opportunity--will actually lower America's gross national happiness, not raise it." Opportunity allows for good jobs, and "job satisfaction actually increases life happiness." Brooks argues that work makes people happy because they are creating value, a theme he explored in a textbook also released in 2008 on "social value creation."
To the extent that happiness can be "bought," it is with charity: giving—of effort, time, and money—makes people much happier, says Brooks, and it correlates with many other characteristics of the happy. Brooks, identifying himself as a libertarian
, writes that the government does a poor job of making us happy but that "the government can help us pursue happiness."
Gross National Happiness was widely reviewed and featured in many news outlets, especially on talk radio
. In addition to his media for Gross National Happiness, Brooks has blogged for the New York Times's Freakonomics
blog and written dozens of op-eds for the Wall Street Journal and several other major papers. The Economist
devoted an entire "Lexington" column to Brooks's findings in Gross National Happiness, referring to it as "a subtle and engaging distillation of oceans of data." Richard Land
wrote that he "found Arthur Brooks’ slaying of pop culture myths to be stimulating and informative."
Will Wilkinson
criticizes Gross National Happiness for downplaying European statistics on happiness. Brooks argues that happiness is highly correlated with religiosity, but Wilkinson points out that some of the world's happiest places--such as some Scandinavia
n countries--have very low religious participation rates. "Brooks just doesn't bring it up," writes Wilkinson. "He seemed to me to encourage the idea that the relationship between religiosity and happiness is deep, perhaps universal. But it just isn't." He continues: "It would be a simple error to infer that 'gross national happiness' would be damaged were the culture to become less conservative or religious."
He asks the reason why, if America is a 70-30 nation favoring free enterprise, are the 30 percent who want to change that culture in charge? He submits that while these numbers appear to favor a traditional free enterprise culture, the 30 percent coalition has a tremendous amount of influence in key places such as academia and entertainment, and has effectively influenced a large number of young Americans.
Brooks believes the financial crisis of 2008-2009 was an opportunity for the statists to attack the free enterprise system as too risky for America to allow to continue in its current form, while ignoring the role of government policy and focusing instead on greed and stupidity in the private sector.
According to Brooks, the "battle" is a peaceful culture war and its outcome will determine whether America continues to exist as a traditional free enterprise system or transforms into a redistributionist European-style social democracy.
This book was named WORLD
magazine's 2010 "Book of the Year" in June 2010.
announced that Brooks would succeed him. "I am thrilled and honored to be asked to serve as the president of AEI," Brooks said. "With research ranging between prophetic ideas and technical policy details, AEI has always acted as a steward of American ideals of private liberty, individual opportunity, and free enterprise. Time and again, AEI's mix of great people and strong values has produced the right ideas at the right time for America and the world. To serve as the Institute's president in the coming era is a truly wonderful and humbling opportunity, and I am fully committed to building on the Institute's amazing record of success." Brooks became AEI's eleventh president on January 1, 2009.
and Republican
, he states that he is now an independent
.
Social Scientist
Social Scientist is a New Delhi based journal in social sciences and humanities published since 1972....
and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He is the president of the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, a conservative think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
. Brooks is best known for his work on the junctions between culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, and politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
. Two of his popular volumes, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism and Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It, explore these themes in greater depth. He is a self-described independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
.
Early life and musical career
Brooks was raised in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. His parents were professors, and his upbringing has been described as "liberalLiberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
."
After high school, Brooks pursued a career as a professional French hornist, serving from 1983 to 1989 with the Annapolis Brass Quintet
Annapolis Brass Quintet
The Annapolis Brass Quintet was a brass quintet founded by trumpet player David Cran and trombone player Robert Posten in 1971 as America's first full-time performing brass ensemble. During the course of its 22-year career through 1993, it played concerts in all fifty states and throughout Europe,...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, from 1989 to 1992 as the associate principal French hornist with the City Orchestra of Barcelona
Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona
The Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Barcelona, Spain.-History:In addition to the Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu, founded in 1847 and devoted to opera and ballet, Barcelona has had several symphonic orchestras since 1888...
in Spain, and teaching from 1992 to 1995 at Lynn University
Lynn University
Lynn University is a private, non-profit university in Boca Raton, Florida, founded in 1962.The university currently hosts students from 40 states and 90 nations...
's Harid Conservatory of Music.
Academia
Toward the end of his professional music career, Brooks began higher education with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1994 from Thomas Edison State CollegeThomas Edison State College
Thomas Edison State College is a public institution of higher education located in Trenton, New Jersey. One of New Jersey's 12 public universities and colleges, Thomas Edison State College offers degrees at the undergraduate and graduate level....
in New Jersey, a public university that offers distance and nontraditional education programs to working adults. He received a master's degree from Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University, also referred to as FAU or Florida Atlantic, is a public, coeducational, research university located in , United States. The university has six satellite campuses located in the Florida cities of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, Port St. Lucie, and in Fort...
in 1995 before pursuing a doctorate at the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School is a private, higher-education institution that offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAND research projects to solve current public policy problems. Its campus is co-located with the RAND Corporation, a...
, a public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
program located at the RAND Corporation, where he was also a doctoral fellow.
After receiving his PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in policy analysis in 1998, Brooks continued to be affiliated with RAND, for which he produced a number of studies (see bibliography below; his articles appeared in dozens of academic journal
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
s as well), mostly of arts funding and orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
operations. But he began to dive into the junction of culture, politics, and economics that would come to be his trademark. "He kept his head down during the early years of his academic career, publishing the usual economics fare on philanthropy
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
—such as how tax rates and government spending affect giving," writes Ben Gose. Brooks himself said, "I made my academic career doing that stuff, but the whole time I knew I was missing something."
After a stint at Georgia State University
Georgia State University
Georgia State University is a research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves about 30,000 students and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities...
, Brooks landed at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
in 2001. In 2005, he became a full professor, and he held the Louis A. Bantle Chair in Business and Government Policy from 2007 to 2008. At Syracuse, Brooks held joint appointments in the public affairs and management schools.
Rise to prominence
In the early 2000s, Brooks began to look deeper into behavioral economics, often using the General Social SurveyGeneral Social Survey
The General Social Survey is a sociological survey used to collect data on demographic characteristics and attitudes of residents of the United States. The survey is conducted face-to-face with an in-person interview by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, of a...
. It is this work that launched him into the spotlight. During his time at Syracuse, Brooks continued his academic work on philanthropy and nonprofits, authoring several articles and textbooks.
Who Really Cares
Brooks's first foray into the limelight was in 2006 with Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate ConservatismCompassionate conservatism
Compassionate Conservatism is a political philosophy that stresses using traditionally conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society. The term itself is often credited to U.S. historian and politician Doug Wead who used it as the title of a speech in 1979....
. Originating in his research on philanthropy and drawing on survey data, he articulates a charity
Charity (practice)
The practice of charity means the voluntary giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.- Etymology :The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas".Originally in Latin the word caritas meant...
gap between the 75 percent of Americans who donate to charitable causes and the rest who do not. Brooks argues that there are three cultural values that best predict charitable giving: religious participation, political views, and family structure. Ninety-one percent of people who identify themselves as religious are likely to give to charity, writes Brooks, as opposed to 66 percent of people who do not. The religious giving sector is just as likely to give to secular programs as it is to religious causes. Those who think government should do more to redistribute income are less likely to give to charitable causes, and those who believe the government has less of a role to play in income redistribution tend to give more. Finally, people who couple and raise children are more likely to give philanthropically than those who do not. The more children there are in a family, the more likely that a family will donate to charity. One of Brooks's most controversial findings was that political conservatives give more, despite having incomes that are on average 6 percent lower than liberals.
Brooks adopts what he calls a "polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
" tone when offering recommendations, urging that philanthropic giving not be crowded out by government programs and that giving must be cultivated in families and communities. He admits being surprised by his conclusion: "These are not the sort of conclusions I ever thought I would reach when I started looking at charitable giving in graduate school, 10 years ago. I have to admit I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book."
Who Really Cares was widely reviewed and critiqued. Many commentators thought that Brooks played up the role of religion too much, arguing that a charity gap is largely erased when religious giving is not considered, despite the fact that Brooks addressed and forcefully disproved this argument in his research, as recorded in the book. Jim Lindgren writes, "Although the liberal v. conservative split is the hook for the book, the data are not nearly as stark as the hype surrounding the book might indicate."
In February 2007, after the release of Who Really Cares, Brooks briefed President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and first lady Laura Bush
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
on his findings. Later that year, Brooks joined the American Enterprise Institute
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
as a visiting scholar.
Gross National Happiness
In April 2008, Brooks published a survey and analysis of U.S. happinessHappiness
Happiness is a mental state of well-being characterized by positive emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of biological, psychological, religious, and philosophical approaches have striven to define happiness and identify its sources....
research entitled Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It. Drawing his title from the Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...
ese measurement of national well-being
Gross national happiness
The assessment of gross national happiness was designed in an attempt to define an indicator that measures quality of life or social progress in more holistic and psychological terms than only the economic indicator of gross domestic product .-Origins and meaning:The term...
, Brooks argues that the United States is one of the world's only other countries to enshrine happiness in its credo
Credo
A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...
. Yet, he argues, happiness tends to get discounted in public policy in favor of other priorities. Brooks reviews survey data to understand the contours of how happy individual Americans are and how individual happiness translates into nationwide satisfaction.
Brooks's findings were controversial. Conservatives, he writes, are twice as likely to call themselves "very happy" than liberals. Those with extreme political beliefs, right or left, tend to be happier than moderates—although their provocations lower happiness for the rest of society. Devout people of all religions are much happier than secularists. Parents are happier than the childless, even though their children often upset them. But child-rearing, Brooks writes, offers "meaning" to life, a sort of deep happiness that Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
called eudaimonia
Eudaimonia
Eudaimonia or eudaemonia , sometimes Anglicized as eudemonia , is a Greek word commonly translated as happiness or welfare; however, "human flourishing" has been proposed as a more accurate translation...
. Balancing freedom and order also brings optimal happiness, Brooks writes, because "too many moral choices leave us insecure and searching, unable to distinguish right from wrong, and thus miserable."
The second section of the book is dedicated to the economic dimensions of happiness. Opportunity breeds happiness, Brooks writes, and "efforts to diminish economic inequality--without creating economic opportunity--will actually lower America's gross national happiness, not raise it." Opportunity allows for good jobs, and "job satisfaction actually increases life happiness." Brooks argues that work makes people happy because they are creating value, a theme he explored in a textbook also released in 2008 on "social value creation."
To the extent that happiness can be "bought," it is with charity: giving—of effort, time, and money—makes people much happier, says Brooks, and it correlates with many other characteristics of the happy. Brooks, identifying himself as a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, writes that the government does a poor job of making us happy but that "the government can help us pursue happiness."
Gross National Happiness was widely reviewed and featured in many news outlets, especially on talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
. In addition to his media for Gross National Happiness, Brooks has blogged for the New York Times's Freakonomics
Freakonomics
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
blog and written dozens of op-eds for the Wall Street Journal and several other major papers. The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
devoted an entire "Lexington" column to Brooks's findings in Gross National Happiness, referring to it as "a subtle and engaging distillation of oceans of data." Richard Land
Richard Land
Dr. Richard D. Land, aka Chief Red Bull, is the president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission , the moral and ethics concern entity of the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States, a post he has held since 1988...
wrote that he "found Arthur Brooks’ slaying of pop culture myths to be stimulating and informative."
Will Wilkinson
Will Wilkinson
Will Wilkinson is a Canadian American libertarian writer. Until August 2010, he was a research fellow at the Cato Institute where he worked on a variety of issues including Social Security reform and, most notably, the policy implications of happiness research. He is currently working on a paper...
criticizes Gross National Happiness for downplaying European statistics on happiness. Brooks argues that happiness is highly correlated with religiosity, but Wilkinson points out that some of the world's happiest places--such as some Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n countries--have very low religious participation rates. "Brooks just doesn't bring it up," writes Wilkinson. "He seemed to me to encourage the idea that the relationship between religiosity and happiness is deep, perhaps universal. But it just isn't." He continues: "It would be a simple error to infer that 'gross national happiness' would be damaged were the culture to become less conservative or religious."
The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future
In April 2010, Brooks published The Battle: How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future in which he lays out a moral vision for the resurgence of the ideals of individual liberty, equal opportunity, entrepreneurship and self-reliance that have formed the American identity.He asks the reason why, if America is a 70-30 nation favoring free enterprise, are the 30 percent who want to change that culture in charge? He submits that while these numbers appear to favor a traditional free enterprise culture, the 30 percent coalition has a tremendous amount of influence in key places such as academia and entertainment, and has effectively influenced a large number of young Americans.
Brooks believes the financial crisis of 2008-2009 was an opportunity for the statists to attack the free enterprise system as too risky for America to allow to continue in its current form, while ignoring the role of government policy and focusing instead on greed and stupidity in the private sector.
According to Brooks, the "battle" is a peaceful culture war and its outcome will determine whether America continues to exist as a traditional free enterprise system or transforms into a redistributionist European-style social democracy.
This book was named WORLD
World (magazine)
WORLD Magazine is a biweekly Christian news magazine, published in the United States of America by God's World Publications, a non-profit 501 organization based in Asheville, North Carolina. WORLD differs from most other news magazines in that its declared perspective is one of conservative...
magazine's 2010 "Book of the Year" in June 2010.
Commentary on America's Culture War
Brooks believes America is locked in a culture war in which either America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise, limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces, or America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. Brooks states that while some have tried to dismiss the "tea party" demonstrations and the town hall protests as the work of extremists, ignorant backwoodsmen or agents of the health-care industry, this movement reveals much about the culture war that is underway, and it is not at all clear which side will prevail. Brooks submits that the rejection of her founding principles, in favor of redistributionist statism, will permanently lessen the wealth of The United States. However, the greatest danger is the abandonment of the pursuit of happiness, because only free enterprise brings happiness as a result of earned success.Presidency of American Enterprise Institute
On July 14, 2008, AEI president Christopher DeMuthChristopher DeMuth
Christopher C. DeMuth is an American lawyer. He was the president of the American Enterprise Institute , a conservative think tank, from 1986 to 2008. DeMuth is widely credited with reviving AEI's fortunes after its near-bankruptcy in 1986 and leading the institute to new levels of influence and...
announced that Brooks would succeed him. "I am thrilled and honored to be asked to serve as the president of AEI," Brooks said. "With research ranging between prophetic ideas and technical policy details, AEI has always acted as a steward of American ideals of private liberty, individual opportunity, and free enterprise. Time and again, AEI's mix of great people and strong values has produced the right ideas at the right time for America and the world. To serve as the Institute's president in the coming era is a truly wonderful and humbling opportunity, and I am fully committed to building on the Institute's amazing record of success." Brooks became AEI's eleventh president on January 1, 2009.
Personal
Brooks is married to Ester Brooks, and they have three children. They live in Washington DC. He is a Roman Catholic, and although he has in the past been a registered DemocratDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, he states that he is now an independent
Independent (voter)
An independent voter, those who register as an unaffiliated voter in the United States, is a voter of a democratic country who does not align him- or herself with a political party...
.