The New York Times Book Review - Lance Morrow
Brooks beholds America's 21st-century tribal feuds…with a clear, intelligent eye and a hospitable attitude that is rightly focused on the spiritual dimensions of the problem: Only transcendence can open the way to better solutions down the road. The real swamp just now is in the American mind. As for Brooks's mind, it is filled with unusual ingredients. He is the rational first mate Starbuck to the Ahab of American political looniness—a voice of civic urbanity.
From the Publisher
Arthur Brooks offers the practical prescription in Love Your Enemies that could lead to a more peaceful, just, sustainable, and healthier world.” — Deepak Chopra, Author, The Healing Self
“Love Your Enemies is a handbook for a new generation of leaders who want to bring America together—and anyone seeking to be more effective in a fractious political environment.” — Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of Revolution and co-founder of AOL
“If we won’t listen to each other, maybe we can start by listening to Arthur Brooks. Love Your Enemies offers a heartfelt and patriotic case for how we can put our contempt aside to work together again.” — Simon Sinek, Optimist and New York Times Bestselling Author of Start With Why and Leaders Eat Last
“In Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks reminds us that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and that everyday citizens have the power to bring our country back together.” — David Axelrod, former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
“If you’re satisfied with our toxic ideological climate, then don’t bother reading this book. But if you’d like to rebel against the present nonsense, Arthur Brooks can show us how to do it with joy and confidence — and regardless of your political preferences.” — Ben Sasse, U.S. Senator from Nebraska
“The signal achievement of Arthur Brooks’ latest book is to demonstrate how the seemingly ‘soft’ virtues of love, friendship, and warm-heartedness are, in point of fact, the very qualities most needed to make real progress in the rough and tumble of the political and cultural conversation.” — Bishop Robert Barron, Founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles
“Arthur Brooks is a...former French horn player who decided to be an egghead late in life, he is a unique mix of Catholic piety, data obsession, sartorial connoisseurism, physical fitness, old-soul wisdom, and basic decency.” — Jonah Goldberg, New York Times bestselling author of Suicide of the West
Jonah Goldberg
Arthur Brooks is a...former French horn player who decided to be an egghead late in life, he is a unique mix of Catholic piety, data obsession, sartorial connoisseurism, physical fitness, old-soul wisdom, and basic decency.
Ben Sasse
If you’re satisfied with our toxic ideological climate, then don’t bother reading this book. But if you’d like to rebel against the present nonsense, Arthur Brooks can show us how to do it with joy and confidence — and regardless of your political preferences.
David Axelrod
In Love Your Enemies, Arthur Brooks reminds us that we can disagree without being disagreeable, and that everyday citizens have the power to bring our country back together.
Steve Case
Love Your Enemies is a handbook for a new generation of leaders who want to bring America together—and anyone seeking to be more effective in a fractious political environment.
Bishop Robert Barron
The signal achievement of Arthur Brooks’ latest book is to demonstrate how the seemingly ‘soft’ virtues of love, friendship, and warm-heartedness are, in point of fact, the very qualities most needed to make real progress in the rough and tumble of the political and cultural conversation.
Simon Sinek
If we won’t listen to each other, maybe we can start by listening to Arthur Brooks. Love Your Enemies offers a heartfelt and patriotic case for how we can put our contempt aside to work together again.
Deepak Chopra
Arthur Brooks offers the practical prescription in Love Your Enemies that could lead to a more peaceful, just, sustainable, and healthier world.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-02-03
An economic conservative proposes that those at opposite poles of the political spectrum should learn to love each other.
American Enterprise Institute president Brooks (The Conservative Heart, 2015, etc.) welcomes the opportunity to share his views with those who might not agree with him. After a recent talk on a particularly progressive campus, one student told him, "I came ready to fight, but I really connected with that speech." Many readers will have the same reaction—or at least the author hopes they will since he largely avoids grinding an ideological ax. "What is the cure for our culture of contempt? As I have argued throughout, it's not civility and tolerance, which are garbage standards. It is love for each other and our country." So how do we get there? Brooks argues that we must build bridges rather than walls, replace contempt with empathy, focus on the many values where we agree rather than on the relatively few where we disagree, and embrace each other's common humanity. "Your opportunity when treated with contempt is to change at least one heart—yours," he writes. "You may not be able to control the actions of others, but you can absolutely control your own reaction. You can break the cycle of contempt." Because Brooks feels that the country at large has become addicted to contempt, much of the material parallels 12-step jargon; at the end, he provides "Five Rules to Subvert the Culture of Contempt." He draws from neuroscience and psychology to support his hypotheses and rarely indulges in the sort of finger-pointing that proceeds from who-started-it accusations. "In the long run," writes Brooks, "people are instinctively attracted to happy warriors who fight for others." Since the last to embrace the "happy warrior" label was Hubert Humphrey, it will be fascinating to see whether a book like this has any influence.
Hardly groundbreaking but a straightforward and practical guide back toward human decency.
