Book SummaryThe Second Mountain, by David Brooks

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Second Mountain

Western culture is steeped in individualism, the worldview that encourages you to pursue individual happiness and prizes personal freedom as the highest societal good. But, according to cultural commentator David Brooks, this individualist worldview breeds selfishness and deprives your life of greater meaning. Consequently, he argues that you should embrace relationalism—the worldview that prioritizes selflessness and service to others—to lead a deeply fulfilling life.

In his 2019 book, The Second Mountain, Brooks details his own experiences to explain why the relationalist approach to life is more satisfying than its individualist counterpart. Along the way, he outlines the four commitments that are crucial to...

The Second Mountain Summary Two Approaches to Life: Individualism and Relationalism

To begin, we’ll dive deeper into the distinction between Brooks’s two mountains—which we’ll refer to as two approaches to life. As we’ll see, the first approach is characteristic of individualism, which prioritizes personal liberty and spurns commitment, while the second approach is characteristic of relationalism, which celebrates community and prizes commitment.

The Individualist Approach to Life

According to Brooks, the dominant approach to life in Western culture is individualist: It emphasizes the value of the individual, divorced from community, and views self-expression as life’s primary goal. Brooks argues that despite its prominence, the individualist approach leaves us unfulfilled since it doesn’t satisfy our longing to serve others.

(Shortform note: While Western culture embraces individualism, experts observe that collectivism—the worldview that emphasizes the interconnectivity of the members of a society—is standard in many Eastern cultures. Even within Eastern countries, however, researchers observe that certain areas—such as...

The Second Mountain Summary Commitment 1: Your Vocation

To fully embrace the relationalist approach, Brooks argues that we must make four specific commitments: to a vocation, a spouse, a community, and a belief system. In this section, we’ll examine the first of these commitments—the commitment to a vocation. First, we’ll discuss Brooks’s distinction between a vocation and a career, before proceeding to his strategies for finding your vocation.

What Is a Vocation?

According to Brooks, establishing your career is a key goal of individualism; you evaluate your talents, refine them through education, and choose the job that delivers the best return on investment. By contrast, a vocation isn’t found through a cost-benefit analysis. Rather, Brooks argues that vocations are found in response to an injustice that demands your attention.

(Shortform note: Though Brooks’s conception of vocation is broad, it’s worth noting that “vocation”—in Latin, vocationem—implies a higher purpose than that provided by a career. Indeed, the term originally had a religious connotation, and prior to Martin Luther, vocations were reserved for those in religious positions. In this view,...

The Second Mountain Summary Commitment 2: Your Marriage

In addition to a vocation, Brooks argues that a key commitment of the relationalist approach is marriage. In this section, we’ll first examine Brooks’s distinction between the individualist and the relationalist conception of marriage. Next, we’ll cover his criteria for deciding whether to marry someone, followed by his arguments about the benefits of a relationalist marriage.

Individualist vs. Relationalist Views of Marriage

According to Brooks, individualism and relationalism endorse markedly different approaches to marriage. However, Brooks argues that only the relationalist approach to marriage satisfies our yearning for a deep connection with another person.

To begin, Brooks claims that individualism’s emphasis on personal growth bleeds into its approach to marriage—it treats marriage as a pact between two independent people, whose primary goal is to help their spouse reach self-actualization. In this respect, individualism views marriage as a mutually beneficial contract in which each party helps the other grow.

However, Brooks argues that the individualist conception of marriage will inevitably disappoint you because marriage repeatedly undermines your...

The Second Mountain Summary Commitment 3: Your Community

While marriage involves a commitment to a single person, Brooks argues that the relationalist approach also requires a commitment to many people in the form of a local community. In this section, we’ll discuss Brooks’s arguments for the importance of building community and some of the steps he offers for doing so.

Committing to Restoring Communities

According to Brooks, the prevailing individualism in Western culture is responsible for the erosion of community. In response, he argues that the relationalist approach to life requires committing to local communities because these communities help serve our neighbors.

To demonstrate the importance of community, Brooks first discusses the consequences of the individualist belief in self-sufficiency. Specifically, he claims that this belief has led to widespread loneliness, as Westerners are afraid to ask for help from others.

(Shortform note: According to experts, the widespread loneliness that Brooks laments grew worse during the Covid-19 pandemic, as social distancing and required isolation deprived...

The Second Mountain Summary Commitment 4: Your Belief Systems

In addition to committing to a community, Brooks argues that the relationalist approach requires a commitment to ideas. In this section, we’ll discuss two categories of ideas that Brooks finds worthy of commitment: intellectual ones and religious ones.

Embracing the Intellectual Life

The intellectual life, according to Brooks, involves the relentless pursuit of truth and moral development. Brooks suggests that we should commit to the intellectual life because it teaches us to pursue the highest desires—like truth, wisdom, and flourishing.

(Shortform note: The notion of truth, wisdom, and flourishing being higher desires remains contentious; according to hedonistic theories of ethics, for example, pleasure is the only intrinsically valuable desire. According to this view, then, pursuing truth and wisdom is only valuable insofar as it maximizes pleasure.)

To show as much, Brooks outlines an array of virtues from the intellectual life that he says help elevate our desires. And though he lists more, we’ll focus on three key virtues: open-mindedness, objectivity, and intellectual courage.

First, Brooks...

Shortform Exercise: Strengthen Your Local Community

One key commitment of Brooks’s relationalist approach to life is the commitment to your local community. In this exercise, evaluate strategies for strengthening the community around you.

Describe a recent situation in which you engaged with your community. How did this experience make you feel closer to your community?