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David Brooks

Gertrude Himmelfarb, RIP

John Fea   |  January 2, 2020

I read a little bit of Gertrude Himmelfarb‘s writing when I was working on The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment.  I found her book The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments to...

Fox News Poll: Half the Country Wants Trump Out of Office

John Fea   |  October 9, 2019

Learn more here. Will Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham say that their own poll is “fake news?” Meanwhile, David Brooks does not think impeachment is a good idea.  According to this poll, he is now in the minority....

Is David Brooks the Last American Whig?

John Fea   |  August 16, 2019

No newspaper, magazine, or website is credible these days until it publishes a “David Brooks spiritual pilgrimage” article. 🙂 Most of these pieces are reviews of his latest book The Second Mountain.  Check out examples of this genre at The...

Brooks: Democrats “don’t even have the language to articulate what Trump represents and what needs to be done”

John Fea   |  August 2, 2019

  I am sure my progressive friends hate David Brooks’s recent column, but I loved it.  Brooks thinks Marianne Williamson is on to something, but the column is about so much more. Here is a taste: This election is about...

The Spiritual Journey of David Brooks

John Fea   |  April 30, 2019

We have written a few things over the years about the faith of David Brooks.  See our posts here and here. Sarah Pulliam Bailey has an interesting piece on Brooks at The Washington Post.  Here is a taste: New York City...

On Loyalty

John Fea   |  January 28, 2019

New York Times columnist David Brooks compares the philosophies of William James and the virtually unknown Josiah Royce.  James stressed tolerance.  Royce stressed loyalty. I like Brooks’s piece.  It seems we don’t talk very much about loyal as a moral category.  I have...

David Brooks: “A Complete National Disgrace”

John Fea   |  October 8, 2018

There is little I disagree with in David Brooks’s analysis of Kavanaugh hearings.  Here is a taste: These hearings were also a devastating blow to intellectual humility. At the heart of this case is a mystery: What happened at that party...

David Brooks: “Don’t make up your mind about Kavanaugh without reading this”

John Fea   |  September 18, 2018

Don’t make up your mind about Kavanaugh without reading this. https://t.co/XFFjndwxyH — David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 18, 2018 Read Caitlin Flanagan’s story at The Atlantic.  It is worth your time.  Here is a taste: “Dear Caitlin,” an inscription in my 12th-grade...

My Encounter With David Brooks

John Fea   |  February 5, 2018

It lasted about ten seconds.  It happened Saturday night (Feb. 3, 2018) in the Walter Kerr Theater on Broadway.  I was there with my daughter to see Springsteen on Broadway (review forthcoming).  As we stood in line to buy a...

David Brooks’s 2004 Op-Ed on John Stott is More Relevant Than Ever

John Fea   |  June 26, 2017

Not all evangelicals are court evangelicals.  Some are Stott evangelicals. Back in 2004, New York Times columnist David Brooks understood that not all evangelicals are the same.  Here is a taste of his op-ed “Who is John Stott?”  The piece is probably...

The Reading Habits of Journalists and Public Intellectuals

John Fea   |  June 20, 2017

Check out Danny Funt‘s piece at Columbia Journalism Review titled “What does it mean for a journalist today to be a Serious Reader? In the course of the essay he discusses the reading habits of Adam Gopnik, David Brooks, Ta-Nehisi Coates,...

Did Fake News Come From Liberty or Harvard?

John Fea   |  April 25, 2017

David Brooks’s recent column defending Western Civilization is bound to get the descendants of the New Left and the defenders of multiculturalism very angry.  But I think he ends the column with a very fair point: These days, the whole idea...

Answering "Secular Purism" With "Religious Purism"

John Fea   |  March 15, 2017

Alternative title for this post: “The heroes of Rod’s book are almost all monks.” David Brooks has reviewed Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option.  Here is a taste: Rod is pre-emptively surrendering when in fact some practical accommodation is entirely possible....

Nicholas Wolterstorff on Empathy

John Fea   |  August 6, 2016

Earlier this week I argued that Khizir Khan (in response to Donald Trump) has brought “empathy” into public discourse.  As I have said several times here already, I am glad to see this.  One of our readers, John Mulholland, the...

David Brooks on Trump and Empathy

John Fea   |  August 5, 2016

New York Times columnist David Brooks has been pulling no punches when it comes to criticizing Donald Trump.  In his latest column he plays the Khizr Khan card by chiding the GOP POTUS nominee for his lack of empathy.  This,...

Has David Brooks "Come to the Lord?"

John Fea   |  April 6, 2016

Has David Brooks converted to Christianity?   I also asked this question back in October 2015.  Now Jim Daly, the host of the radio program Focus on the Family, notes that Brooks, who was raised Jewish, “came to the Lord...

More on the Obama-Niebuhr Connection

John Fea   |  February 9, 2016

One of these reasons that New York Times columnist David Brooks likes Barack Obama so much (despite the fact that he disagrees with him more than he agrees with him) is because both he and Obama are fans of the mid-twentieth...

Quote of the Day

John Fea   |  January 11, 2016

…if you watch a Cruz speech, it’s like, we have got this enemy, we have got that enemy, we’re going to stomp on this person, we’re going to crush that person, we’re going to destroy that person. It is an...

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