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Arthur C. Brooks

{{Short description|American author and academic}}

{{Infobox economist

|name = Arthur C. Brooks

|image = Arthur Brooks by Gage Skidmore 3.jpg

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1964|5|21}}

|birth_place = Spokane, Washington, U.S.

|death_date =

|death_place =

|education = California Institute of the Arts
Thomas Edison State University (BA)
Florida Atlantic University (MA)
Pardee RAND Graduate School (MPhil, PhD)

|institution = Harvard University (2019–present)
American Enterprise Institute (2009–2019)
Syracuse University (2001–2009)
Georgia State University (1998–2000)

|field = Social science
Microeconomics
Management

|school_tradition = Neoclassical economics

|repec_prefix = f

|repec_id = pbr387

}}

Arthur C. Brooks (born May 21, 1964) is an American author and academic.

Since 2019, Brooks has served as the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit and Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School and at the Harvard Business School as a Professor of Management Practice and Faculty Fellow.{{Cite web |date=August 30, 2018 |title=Arthur Brooks appointed professor of the practice of public leadership at Harvard Kennedy School |url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/announcements/arthur-brooks-appointed-hks-professor |website=Harvard Kennedy School}} Previously, Brooks served as the 11th President of the American Enterprise Institute. He is the author of thirteen books, including Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey (2023), From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (2022), Love Your Enemies (2019), The Conservative Heart (2015), and The Road to Freedom (2012). Since 2020, he has written the Atlantic’s How to Build a Life column on happiness.

File:Brooks at the 2022 Atlantic In Pursuit of Happiness Conference.jpg

Early life and education

Brooks was born on May 21, 1964,{{Cite web |title="The Conservative Heart" Excerpt by Arthur C. Brooks |url=https://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/the-conservative-heart-excerpt-arthur-c-brooks-msna638891 |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=MSNBC.com |date=14 July 2015 |language=en}} in Spokane, Washington,{{Cite web |last=Lomba |first=Pierre |date=2023-06-10 |title=Arthur C. Brooks of Harvard Business School: ‘Money does not increase happiness, it only reduces unhappiness; beyond $100,000, it doesn’t matter how much you have’ |url=https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-06-10/arthur-c-brooks-of-harvard-business-school-money-does-not-increase-happiness-it-only-reduces-unhappiness-beyond-100000-it-doesnt-matter-how-much-you-have.html |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=EL PAÍS English |language=en-us}} to David C. Brooks, a mathematics professor, and Jacqueline Brooks, an artist. When he was very young, his family moved to Seattle, where he spent his childhood.{{Cite web |title=Arthur C. Brooks Named as Bowdoin's First Joseph McKeen Visiting Fellow |url=https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2019/04/arthur-brooks-named-first-mckeen-visiting-fellow.html |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=News |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Arthur C. Brooks: "The Pursuit of Happiness in an Unhappy World" |url=https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/events/arthur-c-brooks-the-pursuit-of-happiness-in-an-unhappy-world |access-date=2024-03-02 |website=liberalarts.utexas.edu |language=en}}

Brooks studied at the California Institute of the Arts, but after being placed on academic probation in his first years and declining an offer to transfer to the Curtis Institute of Music, he left to be a professional French hornist into his early thirties, much of it with the City Orchestra of Barcelona, Spain.{{Cite news |last=Brooks |first=Arthur |date=January 31, 2013 |title=My Valuable, Cheap College Degree |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/opinion/my-valuable-cheap-college-degree.html |access-date=June 2, 2022}}{{cite web | url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/15/arthur-brooks-journey-happiness-guru-00115752 | title=Arthur Brooks is Now a Self-Help Guru Writing Books with Oprah | website=Politico | date=15 September 2023 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/12/features-arthur-brooks | title=The Happiness Revolutionary | Harvard Magazine | date=6 December 2022 }}

Brooks returned to school in his late twenties to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics, via distance learning, from Thomas Edison State College.

In 1998, Brooks earned his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California, while working at the RAND Corporation as a military operations research analyst for Project Air Force.{{Cite book |last1=Malkin |first1=Michelle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dihiDAAAQBAJ&dq=arthur+brooks+RAND+Graduate+School&pg=PA71 |title=Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best & Brightest Workers |last2=Miano |first2=John |date=2016-06-21 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-5011-1595-0 |pages=71 |language=en}}

Career

= Georgia State University & Syracuse University =

Brooks began his academic career in 1998 at Georgia State University as an assistant professor of public administration and economics. From 2001 to 2008, he taught at Syracuse University, where he was made a full professor in 2006, and was named the Louis A. Bantle Professor of Business and Government Policy in 2007. He held a joint appointment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.{{cite news |last1=Ruddy |first1=Cort |title=Arthur C. Brooks Shares Happiness Recipe: 'Enjoyment, Satisfaction and Meaning' |url=https://news.syr.edu/blog/2024/11/15/arthur-c-brooks-shares-happiness-recipe-enjoyment-satisfaction-and-meaning/ |access-date=15 November 2024 |work=Syracuse University News |date=15 November 2024}} During his tenure at Syracuse, Brooks published over 60 peer-reviewed articles and four books.{{Cite web |date=July 12, 2022 |title=Arthur C. Brooks |url=https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/arthur-brooks }}

= American Enterprise Institute =

From 2009 to 2019, Brooks served as the 11th President and Beth and Ravenel Curry Scholar in Free Enterprise for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In 2018, he announced his resignation from AEI, writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that "social enterprises generally thrive best when chief executives don't stay much longer than a decade, because it's important to refresh the organizational vision periodically and avoid becoming uniquely associated with one person."{{Cite journal |last=Brooks |first=Arthur C. |date=March 14, 2018 |title=Reflections on a Decade of Leading a Think Tank |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/reflections-on-a-decade-of-leading-a-think-tank-1521055879 |journal=The Wall Street Journal}}

= Harvard University =

Since 2019, Brooks has served as a professor at the Harvard Business School and at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he runs the Leadership & Happiness Laboratory at the Center for Public Leadership. His "Leadership and Happiness" class at Harvard Business School has gained immense popularity and attention in the press.{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Lindsay |date=February 14, 2022 |title=Harvard Wants M.B.A.s to Learn How to Be Happy at Work |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-wants-m-b-a-s-to-learn-how-to-be-happy-at-work-11644836400 |journal=The Wall Street Journal}} He has also been a senior fellow with the Abigail Adams Institute.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240308064247/https://www.abigailadamsinstitute.org/senior-fellows-1 |title=Senior Fellows ― The Abigail Adams Institute |author= |url=https://www.abigailadamsinstitute.org/senior-fellows-1 |url-status=live |date= |website=The Abigail Adams Institute |publisher= |access-date=June 6, 2024 |archive-date=March 8, 2024}}

Books and research

= ''The Pursuit'' =

Brooks was the subject of the 2019 documentary The Pursuit. This film follows Brooks around the world as he searches for answers to issues of global poverty.{{Cite journal |last=Bell |first=BreAnna |date=2019 |title=Best Documentaries on Netflix in October |url=https://variety.com/2019/film/news/netflix-best-documentaries-1203298127/ |journal=Variety}}

= ''Love Your Enemies'' =

In 2019, Brooks published Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt, which he describes as an antidote to the toxic political culture he found in the United States, especially after the 2016 election. With ideas based in behavioral research, ancient philosophy, and his own experience as the president of AEI, Brooks encourages a culture of love and respectful disagreement for political and economic progress and shows how this can be done. Love Your Enemies was a national bestseller and was included in Politico{{'}}s "Top Books of 2019".{{Cite web |last=Okun |first=Eli |date=December 31, 2019 |title=The top books and trends of 2019, according to Playbook readers |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/31/playbooks-top-books-and-trends-of-2019-091590 |website=Politico}}

= Happiness research =

Brooks began focusing intensively on the study of happiness following his professional move from AEI to Harvard, where he taught classes in happiness, also writing weekly on the subject in The Atlantic. He also began hosting podcasts on happiness such as The Art of Happiness.{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Love in the Time of Corona |url=https://arthurbrooks.com/news/podcast/love-in-the-time-of-corona/ }}

= ''From Strength to Strength'' =

In February 2022, Brooks published From Strength to Strength: Finding Happiness, Success, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. Brooks's ideas on happiness research on aging professionals were first introduced to the public in a 2019 Atlantic article, "Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think".{{Cite journal |last=Brooks |first=Arthur C. |date=July 2019 |title=Your Professional Decline is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/ |journal=The Atlantic}} From Strength to Strength debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for several months.{{Cite news |date=March 2, 2022 |title=Best Sellers: Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction |work=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2022/03/06/combined-print-and-e-book-nonfiction/ |access-date=June 2, 2022}} Oprah Winfrey recommended the book,{{Cite web |date=April 22, 2022 |title=Super Soul with Oprah Winfrey |publisher=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XteYnAmHXw}} which was also endorsed by the Dalai Lama.{{Cite web |last=Lama |first=Dalai |date=June 2, 2022 |title=Reviews |url=https://arthurbrooks.com/book/from-strength-to-strength/}}

= ''Build the Life You Want'' =

In September 2023, Brooks, along with co-author Oprah Winfrey, published Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, which debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.{{Cite news |title=Best Sellers - Books - Oct. 1, 2023 - The New York Times |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers/2023/10/01/advice-how-to-and-miscellaneous/ |access-date=2023-10-30 |issn=0362-4331}}

Awards and recognition

Brooks has been awarded honorary doctorates from Providence College{{Cite web |title=Happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks advises Providence College graduates to 'use things, love people, worship God' |url=https://news.providence.edu/arthur-brooks-commencement-2024/ |access-date=2024-07-01 |website=PC News |date=20 May 2024 |language=en-US}} in 2024 the Catholic University of America in 2023, Saint Thomas Aquinas College in 2020, Brigham Young University in 2019, Claremont McKenna College in 2019, Hampden-Sydney College in 2018, Jacksonville University in 2018, Ave Maria University in 2015, and Thomas Edison State College in 2013.{{Cite web |date=June 2, 2022 |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Profile%20Files/12-20%20Brooks%20CV%20HBS_a2973261-d1fb-4b53-adf4-122aae1989dc.pdf |website=Harvard Business School |access-date=August 15, 2022 |archive-date=August 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220802100057/https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Profile%20Files/12-20%20Brooks%20CV%20HBS_a2973261-d1fb-4b53-adf4-122aae1989dc.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{third party inline |date = November 2023}}

Personal life

Brooks is married to Ester Munt-Brooks, a native of Barcelona.{{Cite web |title=A Conversation with Arthur Brooks, hosted by the Reverend Philip A. Jackson '85 |url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/events/speakers-conversations/virtual/covid-conversations/brooks-jackson |access-date=2025-03-16 |website=www.amherst.edu}}

Brooks is involved with Opus Dei.{{Cite web |title=Online Conversation {{!}} Strength in the Second Half with Arthur Brooks |url=https://ttf.org/portfolios/online-conversation-strength-in-the-second-half-with-arthur-brooks/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=The Trinity Forum |language=en-US}}

Bibliography

  • {{Cite book |last1=McCarthy |first1=Kevin F. |title=The performing arts in a new era |last2=Arthur C. Brooks |last3=Julia Lowell |last4=Laura Zakaras |publisher=Rand Corporation |year=2001 |isbn=0833030418 |location=Santa Monica |name-list-style=amp}}
  • Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Laura Zakaras, and Arthur C. Brooks. Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation, 2004. ({{ISBN|0833036947}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks, ed. Gifts of Time and Money: The Role of Charity in America's Communities. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. ({{ISBN|0742545059}})
  • Kevin F. McCarthy, Elizabeth H. Ondaatje, Arthur C. Brooks, and Andras Szanto. A Portrait of the Visual Arts: Meeting the Challenges of a New Era. Santa Monica, Calf.: Rand Corporation, 2005. ({{ISBN|0833037935}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. New York: Basic Books, 2006. ({{ISBN|978-0465008216}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America—and How We Can Get More of It. New York: Basic Books, 2008. ({{ISBN|978-0465002788}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. Social Entrepreneurship: A Modern Approach to Social Value Creation. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2008. ({{ISBN|978-0132330763}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. The Battle: How the Fight between Big Government and Free Enterprise Will Shape America's Future. New York: Basic Books, 2010. ({{ISBN|978-0465022120}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. The Road to Freedom: How to Win the Fight for Free Enterprise. New York: Basic Books, 2012. ({{ISBN|978-0465029402}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America. New York: Broadside Books, 2015. ({{ISBN|978-0062319753}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks. Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt. New York: Broadside Books, 2019. ({{ISBN|978-0062883759|}})
  • {{Cite journal |last=Brooks, Arthur C. |date=July 2019 |title=Your professional decline is coming (much) sooner than you think |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/work-peak-professional-decline/590650/ |department=The Workplace Report |journal=The Atlantic |volume=324 |issue=1 |pages=66–76 |access-date=2019-10-25}}
  • Arthur C. Brooks. From Strength to Strength, Finding Happiness, Success, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2022. ({{ISBN|978-0593191484}})
  • Arthur C. Brooks, Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2023 ({{ISBN|978-0593545409}})

Filmography

  • The Pursuit (2019)

References

{{Reflist|35em}}

External links

{{Commons category|Arthur C. Brooks}}

  • {{official|http://arthurbrooks.com}}
  • [http://www.aei.org/brooks Arthur C. Brooks's profile at the American Enterprise Institute's website]
  • {{C-SPAN|1022684}}

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{{s-bef|before=Christopher DeMuth}}

{{s-ttl|title=President of the American Enterprise Institute|years=2008–2019}}

{{s-aft|after=Robert Doar}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Arthur}}

Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:American classical horn players

Category:American Enterprise Institute

Category:American libertarians

Category:The Atlantic (magazine) people

Category:Florida Atlantic University alumni

Category:Libertarian theorists

Category:Musicians from Seattle

Category:Musicians from Spokane, Washington

Category:RAND Corporation people

Category:Syracuse University faculty

Category:Thomas Edison State University alumni

Category:Washington, D.C., Democrats

Category:Washington, D.C., Republicans