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"I published this book not sure I could follow the street to character, but I needed at least to know what the road appears like and how other folks have trodden it." (David Brooks) With the knowledge, humor, attention, and pointed insights that contain brought an incredible number of visitors to his New York Times column and his prior best sellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our day to day lives in unexpected and original ways. In The Friendly Animal, he explored the neuroscience of real human connection and how exactly we can flourish collectively. Now, in The Street to Figure, he targets the deeper principles that should inform our lives. Giving an answer to what he calls the culture of the Big Me, which emphasizes exterior success, Brooks troubles us and himself to rebalance the scales between our "résumé virtues" - obtaining wealth, fame, and position - and our "eulogy virtues," the ones that exist at the key of our being: kindness, bravery, integrity, faithfulness, and relationships. Looking to some of the world's ideal thinkers and motivating leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own constraints, they have got built strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins realized the need to suppress elements of herself so she could be an instrument in a more substantial cause. Dwight Eisenhower structured his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the indegent, learned as a woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil privileges pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a commendable crusade. Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Street to Figure has an chance for us to rethink our priorities and strive to build rich inner lives proclaimed by humility and moral depth.
