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  • The Social Animal

  • The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement
  • By: David Brooks
  • Narrated by: Arthur Morey
  • Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (145 ratings)
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The Social Animal cover art

The Social Animal

By: David Brooks
Narrated by: Arthur Morey
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Summary

With unequaled insight and brio, David Brooks, the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bobos in Paradise, has long explored and explained the way we live. Now, with the intellectual curiosity and emotional wisdom that make his columns among the most read in the nation, Brooks turns to the building blocks of human flourishing in a multilayered, profoundly illuminating work grounded in everyday life.This is the story of how success happens. It is told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica—how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed. Distilling a vast array of information into these two vividly realized characters, Brooks illustrates a fundamental new understanding of human nature. A scientific revolution has occurred—we have learned more about the human brain in the last thirty years than we had in the previous three thousand. The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind—not a dark, vestigial place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain’s work gets done. This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms: the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made. The natural habitat of The Social Animal. Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to school; from the “odyssey years” that have come to define young adulthood to the high walls of poverty; from the nature of attachment, love, and commitment, to the nature of effective leadership. He reveals the deeply social aspect of our very minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.The Social Animal is a moving and nuanced intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. Impossible to put down, it is an essential book for our time, one that will have broad social impact and will change the way we see ourselves and the world.

©2011 David Brooks (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"An uncommonly brilliant blend of sociology, intellect and allegory." (Kirkus)

“Authoritative, impressively learned, and vast in scope.” (Newsweek)

“As in [Bobos in Paradise] he shows genius in sketching archetypes and coining phrases. . . . In The Social Animal Mr. Brooks surveys a stunning amount of research and cleverly connects it to everyday experience.” (The Wall Street Journal)

What listeners say about The Social Animal

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Just someone reading out statistics

This whole book is just a list of statistics - and quite a few of them outdated ones. The author tells it like these statistics are facts about human nature when they are in the main just manipulated numbers. There are lots of boring stereotype views about the differences between men and women. I couldn't listen to the whole book so I'm not sure how the love, character and achievement come into it. All I heard was statistics and a contempt for other people.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

great book. very well written. very well read.

really enjoyed this book. shame the references can't be offered. unsure how it would work.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully written

Cried like a baby at the end. written with really intelligent takes and a beautiful story.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful

What a wonderful journey. I've read and listened twice and will be thinking about and re-reading it for the rest of my life.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

fun facts, boring story

the information dumps throughout the story are always interesting. but I couldn't care less about the story of Harold and Erica

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engaging, scientific, thought provoking

Beautiful story of whole human life from scientific and evolutionary perspective diving deeper ir to many possible branches and exloring ups and downs of it, in observing and deep manner. Though scientific, it is still story driven and has touching ending giving thought provoking ideas on meaning of life .

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A novel format for non fiction

Thoughtfully put together with interesting research woven into the narrative, but this could have been done more concisely.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Started brilliantly, tailed off, finished well

This book's brilliance is in its relation to every day life. Following the lives of fictional characters makes some challenging ideas much easier to understand and relate to. However, it seemed to veer too far from Harold and Erica in the second half, going off on tangents about their careers with much less focus on their relationships with each other as well as those close to them. I therefore struggled to finish the book, it was a bit of a slog! Having said that, the final chapter or two goes back into their deep bond as a couple so it ended on a high. Just a shame about the middle!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful and educational

Will definitely listen again. The studies and academic knowledge is integrated seamlessly with a simple story that captures your imagination.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Masterpiece description of human experience

Not many books captured my focussed attention as well as this one. The story line will take you on incredible journey through a human experience - you will find your own experience buried within the lifes of the characters in thw story. A must read!

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