David Brooks
Academy of Achievement
For those who follow the gyrations of American politics, the week is not complete until David Brooks is heard from. After completing his two columns a week for The New York Times, Brooks takes to the airwaves every Friday, on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and on PBS television's The News Hour. On the air, as in print, he brings historical perspective, a bracing candor and gentle humor to his analysis of the week's events. Brooks was a senior at the University of Chicago when a piece he'd written, lampooning conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr., caught the eye of its presumed target and led to an assignment with Buckley's National Review. Brooks later became a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly. As a foreign correspondent, he covered Europe, Russia, South Africa and the Middle East for The Wall Street Journal, and later edited the paper's opinion page. His 2000 bestseller, Bobos in Paradise, was a work of 'comic sociology' anat