Author David Brooks Discussed The Road to Character Book

Chris Flouhouse and family at the game

A graduate of North Carolina State University, Chris Flouhouse is a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. An avid reader, Chris Flouhouse recently finished The Road to Character by David Brooks.

New York Times columnist and bestselling author David Brooks published The Road to Character in 2015. The nonfiction tome centers on a range of people who have a strong sense of character. Mr. Brooks examines these people and examines how society’s morals and character have shifted over generations, resulting in what seems like a lack of character today. He also writes about the external self and how it compares to the internal self.

In April 2017, David Brooks participated in a podcast with Brett McKay and his Art of Manliness podcast. During the interview, Mr. Brooks said he was listening to a rebroadcast of an old radio show from the 1940s and heard Bing Crosby say that on VJ Day, “we don’t feel too proud, we’re just humbled.” He was struck by the tone of humility and how people were modest during a time when they could have been boastful. 

After the broadcast, he went inside and turned on the television to watch a football game. He saw a defensive back tackle a wide receiver and did a dance to celebrate his tackle. Mr. Brooks pondered how the victory dance on television over a two-yard gain was more modest than winning World War II. Hence, his book focuses on after World War II; how culture went from self-faith to self-celebration.