Arthur C. Brooks, author portrait
© Daniel Bayer for the Aspen Institute

Arthur C. Brooks

Arthur C. Brooks is an American social scientist, the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School. Prior, he was the president of the American Enterprise Institute for ten years, where he held the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Free Enterprise. He has authored eleven books, including the bestsellers Love Your Enemies and The Conservative Heart, and writes the popular How to Build a Life column at The Atlantic. He is also the host of the podcasts How to Build a Happy Life and The Art of Happiness with Arthur Brooks.
The Meaning of Your Life
Build the Life You Want

Books

The Meaning of Your Life
Build the Life You Want

What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2025-26

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities around the country have announced their Common Reading books for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 284 programs and their title selections from publicly available sources, which you can download here: First-Year Reading 2025-26. We will continue to update this

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2026 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2026! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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unCommon Authors, an Author Video Series: BUILD THE LIFE YOU WANT by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

PRH Education/Common Reads presents: unCommon Authors unCommon Authors is a monthly video series highlighting exceptional and unique authors talking about their books. In Build the Life You Want, Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey invite you to begin a journey toward greater happiness no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing on cutting-edge science and their years

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Now available: Student Curriculum Guide for Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier, co-written by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey

We’re pleased to announce the launch of a series of resources designed to deepen student and faculty learning and engagement with Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier to support first-year reading and orientation programs, as well as other campus reading programs. As a supplement to bulk orders of Build

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