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Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
In his bestselling work of “comic sociology,” David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today’s upper class—those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation.
Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo.
Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
David Brooks
24 books1,802 followersDavid Brooks is a political and cultural commentator. He is currently a columnist for The New York Times and a commentator on PBS NewsHour. He has previously worked for Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly and National Public Radio.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 455 reviews
July 19, 2007
David Brooks is, for lack of a better term, David Brooks. He has two schticks. First is conservative politics presented in a manner palatable to the readership of The New York Times and the viewers of the PBS News Hour. Second is pop anthropological commentary on perceived cultural phenomena. Bobos in Paradise falls into the latter category. "Bobo", a long common term in French of identical meaning, is hipspeak for bourgeois bohemian -- liberals with $$$ and status. The problem, however, is that David Brooks is not hip. (Except perhaps among bobos.)
Brooks' writing emphasizes the big picture but forsakes many of the details that comprise it. This makes Bobos in Paradise an uneven book. At base, observation of the obvious, with a few legitimately thoughtful, and more than a few legitimately funny, turns.
Brooks' writing emphasizes the big picture but forsakes many of the details that comprise it. This makes Bobos in Paradise an uneven book. At base, observation of the obvious, with a few legitimately thoughtful, and more than a few legitimately funny, turns.
April 24, 2024
Dionysius, the god of abandon, has been reconciled with Prometheus, the god of work.
That sentence aptly describes the Bobo. What, you may ask, is a Bobo? A Bourgeois Bohemian. In essence, they are the New Establishment, having replaced the pure Yuppies who replaced the pure Hippies who replaced the Beats who replaced the Old Establishment. Bobo.
Lady Chatterley's lover becomes Lady Chatterley's empowerment counselor.
You might know a Bobo. Perhaps, you are one yourself. They tend to cluster in urban forests, such as the Bay Area of California, London, Portland, Brussels, and seem to be growing steadily in certain parts of Dublin. You may know gosling Bobos, too. These children are moved from one organized activity to another, with little time to improvise their own playstyle, resulting in trophies for everyone and limited cross-fertlization with other groups. Tom Sawyer has definitely left the building.
Everything we do must serve the Life Mission, which is cultivation, progress, and self-improvement.
If Christopher Columbus had been a Bobo, he would have returned to Spain and exclaimed, "We didn't find China, but we did find ourselves". Bobos. Perhaps you work with one. They have a tendency to wear rugged and very expensive mountaineering gear as their work outfit with highly reflective sunglasses (just in case an avalanche might hit the office).
I was reading this very book while sitting in a cafe and two tables over, I saw Bobos In Conversation. Their dialogue included the following words:
dynamics
intensive
transitions
outsource
selective
bandwidth
They were discussing having a baby. Bobos.
I didn't warm up immediately to this book, but the author's sly sarcasm finally took hold. David Brooks proudly refers to himself as a Bobo, noting all the good things that have come from Bobo-ism (less smoking, respect for the earth, focus on life). We all have a little Bobo in us, I guess. In my life, I am surrounded by them, like leaves on a tree. The book helped me to understand them better. Like a travel guide.
Previously, the only Bobo I ever knew was Bobo The Bear...from the Muppets.
Now that's my kind of Bobo.
Book Season = Year Round (pass the organic beef jerky)
That sentence aptly describes the Bobo. What, you may ask, is a Bobo? A Bourgeois Bohemian. In essence, they are the New Establishment, having replaced the pure Yuppies who replaced the pure Hippies who replaced the Beats who replaced the Old Establishment. Bobo.
Lady Chatterley's lover becomes Lady Chatterley's empowerment counselor.
You might know a Bobo. Perhaps, you are one yourself. They tend to cluster in urban forests, such as the Bay Area of California, London, Portland, Brussels, and seem to be growing steadily in certain parts of Dublin. You may know gosling Bobos, too. These children are moved from one organized activity to another, with little time to improvise their own playstyle, resulting in trophies for everyone and limited cross-fertlization with other groups. Tom Sawyer has definitely left the building.
Everything we do must serve the Life Mission, which is cultivation, progress, and self-improvement.
If Christopher Columbus had been a Bobo, he would have returned to Spain and exclaimed, "We didn't find China, but we did find ourselves". Bobos. Perhaps you work with one. They have a tendency to wear rugged and very expensive mountaineering gear as their work outfit with highly reflective sunglasses (just in case an avalanche might hit the office).
I was reading this very book while sitting in a cafe and two tables over, I saw Bobos In Conversation. Their dialogue included the following words:
dynamics
intensive
transitions
outsource
selective
bandwidth
They were discussing having a baby. Bobos.
I didn't warm up immediately to this book, but the author's sly sarcasm finally took hold. David Brooks proudly refers to himself as a Bobo, noting all the good things that have come from Bobo-ism (less smoking, respect for the earth, focus on life). We all have a little Bobo in us, I guess. In my life, I am surrounded by them, like leaves on a tree. The book helped me to understand them better. Like a travel guide.
Previously, the only Bobo I ever knew was Bobo The Bear...from the Muppets.
Now that's my kind of Bobo.
Book Season = Year Round (pass the organic beef jerky)
February 24, 2015
Basically? OH SHUT UP, David Brooks. I wanted it to be good. In fact, it was a rather smug field guide; nothing revelatory, no meaningful/mature analysis. You might as well re-read The Official Preppie Handbook.
August 26, 2007
Though it’s not necessary to read the whole book, the introduction and opening chapters provide a good characterization of my generation and my social class. Brooks describes today’s new upper class—the Bobos—Bourgeois Bohemians. While earlier in the 20th century and before, the bourgeois and bohemians existed in separate social and economic circles (the bourgeois dominating with “old money” and all the financial resources, the bohemian artists gathering in their coffeeshops and run-down neighbourhoods), today these two groups are blending. Brooks’ style is very conversational—it’s “snazzy” and “smooth”, evocative of the Bobos that he is trying to describe, but that same trendiness of prose can be irritating at times. Though he presents a general historical overview and plenty of descriptive examples, his sweeping generalizations can sometimes be more a matter of prose style than subbutstance. His descriptions are entertaining and informative, and he does intersperse some key bibliography and references throughout his book. His best chapters are the opening two or three and “Spirituality” and “Politics and Beyond”, where he finally offers his brief criticism of the consequences of the Bobo mentality--- a mediocore, complacent existence, concerned with “small-scale morality” and a comfortable lifestyle. Though some may celebrate that we can now be cultured and artistic, and have our money too, it appears to me that this marriage between bourgeois and bohemian as but another step towards the complete commercialization of thought, the disappearance of a grander vision (and hope), and the loss of authenticity and anything real.
February 23, 2022
Very interesting. It will definitely make me think for a while--it covered a lot!
This commentary on the new bourgeois bohemian upper class started out reading as a Tom Wolfe but ended in a more sober and morally insightful tone.
Brooks walks the reader through the various elements that created the Bobo class and ends up with where they *we* are today. Basically, the new elite is a blend of the 60s return to authenticity and nature and the 80s yuppie work ambition. Even though this was written twenty years ago, I think many of his observations still hold true with the exception that a heightened Cancel Culture and Covid have introduced some new changes.
The more I read the book, the more the cover made sense.
So many great quotes, here's one:
"Like so much else in this new cultural wave, Fresh Fields has taken the ethos of California in the 1960s and selectively updated it. Gone are the sixties-era things that were fun and of interest to teenagers, like Free Love, and retained are all the things that might be of interest to middle-aged hypochondriacs, like whole grains."
This commentary on the new bourgeois bohemian upper class started out reading as a Tom Wolfe but ended in a more sober and morally insightful tone.
Brooks walks the reader through the various elements that created the Bobo class and ends up with where they *we* are today. Basically, the new elite is a blend of the 60s return to authenticity and nature and the 80s yuppie work ambition. Even though this was written twenty years ago, I think many of his observations still hold true with the exception that a heightened Cancel Culture and Covid have introduced some new changes.
The more I read the book, the more the cover made sense.
So many great quotes, here's one:
"Like so much else in this new cultural wave, Fresh Fields has taken the ethos of California in the 1960s and selectively updated it. Gone are the sixties-era things that were fun and of interest to teenagers, like Free Love, and retained are all the things that might be of interest to middle-aged hypochondriacs, like whole grains."
July 27, 2021
The prime directive of the Bobo: "Thou shalt Construct thine own Identity"' - Bobos in Paradise, Kindle location 399
This book is worth reading as a autoethnographic companion to Coming Apart, but hasn't aged well: the relativist, tolerant, meritocratic Bobos - the broad elite of Generation X and younger Boomers - have given way in full to the equity-tarian crusaders redivivus of the Millennial and Zoomer broad elite, just as Strauss and Howe predicted almost 30 years ago.
Some things are slower to change, and other changes noted by Brooks have just begun to come in to their own: expressive individualism (Brooks uses the phrase before it entered the popular lexicon), conspicuous consumerism as crusade, 'values capitalism', the hatred of everything the old bourgeois respected, the breaking and remaking of community (at least for the upper-middle classes), the peasant aesthetic and distrust of the grand and transcendent.
Among the most salient and poignant observations made are those on 'status-income disparity' (people like wonks and professors given entree into the halls of power and high society while being relatively broke) and 'income-status disparity', high TC social climbers (a species found in the genuses software engineer, product manager, and quant trader) who have more money than social cachet or respect and basically subsidize and socialize during the day with the status-income disparates of the first class in an attempt to be viewed as intellectuals, benefactors, and generally polished. Witness the apotheosis of this tendency in the displays of the upper 0.001% in endowing colleges, grants, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations.
Brooks shows, without realizing it, the founding of a new morality - as all societies require a morality, but the center could not hold after the WASP establishment lost its nerve - which, passing through tolerance, rejecting the very meritocracy which made the Bobo possible, would become the Creed of Social Justice not much more than a decade later.
This book is worth reading as a autoethnographic companion to Coming Apart, but hasn't aged well: the relativist, tolerant, meritocratic Bobos - the broad elite of Generation X and younger Boomers - have given way in full to the equity-tarian crusaders redivivus of the Millennial and Zoomer broad elite, just as Strauss and Howe predicted almost 30 years ago.
Some things are slower to change, and other changes noted by Brooks have just begun to come in to their own: expressive individualism (Brooks uses the phrase before it entered the popular lexicon), conspicuous consumerism as crusade, 'values capitalism', the hatred of everything the old bourgeois respected, the breaking and remaking of community (at least for the upper-middle classes), the peasant aesthetic and distrust of the grand and transcendent.
Among the most salient and poignant observations made are those on 'status-income disparity' (people like wonks and professors given entree into the halls of power and high society while being relatively broke) and 'income-status disparity', high TC social climbers (a species found in the genuses software engineer, product manager, and quant trader) who have more money than social cachet or respect and basically subsidize and socialize during the day with the status-income disparates of the first class in an attempt to be viewed as intellectuals, benefactors, and generally polished. Witness the apotheosis of this tendency in the displays of the upper 0.001% in endowing colleges, grants, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations.
Brooks shows, without realizing it, the founding of a new morality - as all societies require a morality, but the center could not hold after the WASP establishment lost its nerve - which, passing through tolerance, rejecting the very meritocracy which made the Bobo possible, would become the Creed of Social Justice not much more than a decade later.
May 19, 2008
I don’t think it’s possible for me to write down everything I think about this book into one review. I think the review would end up being as long as the book. I will try to hit the main points of my impressions without going on for too long though.
My first thought is that Brooks’ description of bobo (bohemian and bourgeoisie) culture and behavior is highly entertaining and right on target. I’ve known many people like this (and would myself be classified as a bobo) and can see them and myself in his writings.
The second thing that reading this book has brought me to do is to analyze my surroundings in terms of a bourgeoisie/bohemian distinction. Where I live is decidedly bourgeoisie, whereas I’m used to a much more bohemian culture. The other day I went into a department store and saw a new style of plates and glassware that were definitively bohemian. I asked a clerk if they had been selling and he gave me an emphatic negative answer, which I found amusing.
In all I would have to say that Brooks’ book has some great information and is highly entertaining. My only wish is that he referenced his sources for the small bits of information so I could go back and read those references myself.
My first thought is that Brooks’ description of bobo (bohemian and bourgeoisie) culture and behavior is highly entertaining and right on target. I’ve known many people like this (and would myself be classified as a bobo) and can see them and myself in his writings.
The second thing that reading this book has brought me to do is to analyze my surroundings in terms of a bourgeoisie/bohemian distinction. Where I live is decidedly bourgeoisie, whereas I’m used to a much more bohemian culture. The other day I went into a department store and saw a new style of plates and glassware that were definitively bohemian. I asked a clerk if they had been selling and he gave me an emphatic negative answer, which I found amusing.
In all I would have to say that Brooks’ book has some great information and is highly entertaining. My only wish is that he referenced his sources for the small bits of information so I could go back and read those references myself.
May 5, 2013
I read Bobos in Paradise because I like David Brooks' columns and I really enjoyed "The Social Animal."
The title is a nod to what Brooks describes as the merging (or rather reconciliation) of Bourgeois with Bohemian cultural values and ways of living and how this reconciliation has transformed middle class culture within the U.S. In fact, he invents the word "Bobos" to label this new educated class of people who embrace key components of both cultural forces that seemed irreconcilable not so long ago. The author does a wonderful job placing spot-on observations about modern consumerist life into the context of this massive cultural blending of previously opposing forces - bourgeois and bohemian. He put into context and provided a plausible explanation for several trends that have become ubiquitous such as the commercial success of the organic and local food movements, the commercial success and normalization of so much of what once was considered rebellious hippie culture, and the changing values that underpin these shifts.
While "Bobos" satisfied in many ways, it also disappointed. I admit that reading it several years after it was written, and reading it after The Social Animal kind of set me up for disappointment because his descriptions of "current" consumerism was rendered prior to the recent recession, making some of the extreme examples he uses as evidence less relevant and certainly not as current. While I don't think the recession has changed the cultural and consumerist shifts Brooks describes, the descriptions are occasionally outdated. I also think the "Social Animal" incorporated many of his Bobos insights into a more coherent package.
My favorite chapter was the treatment of Bobo spirituality. Based on my own experiences and my own study, I think Brooks nails this topic! He observes that Bobo spirituality is far more experience based and far less dogmatic - whether one chooses traditional church/synagogue participation or more humanist pursuits to address your spiritual needs. The church goers are less inclined to us vs. them thinking and more inclined to tolerance toward those of other faiths and lifestyles. Dogmatic rules, ritual, and ceremony are de-emphasized or even rejected while morality and virtuous behavior (especially when it comes to the virtues of tolerance, equal rights, and human dignity as opposed to the virtues of piety, proper manners and dress, etc..) At the same time, he accurately assesses that traditional religions - vehicles for spiritual pursuit - lose much ground when the ritual, ceremony, and community duty are ignored. His descriptions and analysis of these aspects of this modern culture ring true for me and his conclusion that while Bobo spirituality has probably made us a more moral people (less racism, sexism, etc...) it has also potentially un-moored us from the traditional institutions that have informed human spirituality for so long with some likely unpleasant side effects. We've gained much but, we may be in danger of losing much at the same time and there's no telling exactly where this will lead for the future of human spirituality.
The book reads like a series of essays - which in fairness it is, kind of. This led me to be delighted with some chapters, like those devoted to the descriptions and analysis of the forces and timelines of Bourgeois Culture and Bohemian counterculture, and disappointed with some others, such as the descriptions of Bobo intellectual life and Bobo travel. Both of these chapters, while sometimes funny in a snarky way, seemed to focus on a much more narrow subset of the larger bobo experience that the rest of the book describes. In fact, I wondered if these chapters weren't a little more autobiographical than the rest. In fact, the self-deprecating humor (at least deprecating to the Bobo culture that Mr. Brooks self identifies with) was sometimes more annoying than funny as it attempted to both praise and poke fun of the accomplishments of Bobo culture.
I do appreciate Mr. Brook's cultural and sociological observations in the book and his thesis overall that the current generation of educational and financial "elites" in our country have successfully melded the best parts of both Bourgeois and Bohemian sensibilities making much about life in America and the western world better while still reconciling the age old conflict underlying these two movements.
The title is a nod to what Brooks describes as the merging (or rather reconciliation) of Bourgeois with Bohemian cultural values and ways of living and how this reconciliation has transformed middle class culture within the U.S. In fact, he invents the word "Bobos" to label this new educated class of people who embrace key components of both cultural forces that seemed irreconcilable not so long ago. The author does a wonderful job placing spot-on observations about modern consumerist life into the context of this massive cultural blending of previously opposing forces - bourgeois and bohemian. He put into context and provided a plausible explanation for several trends that have become ubiquitous such as the commercial success of the organic and local food movements, the commercial success and normalization of so much of what once was considered rebellious hippie culture, and the changing values that underpin these shifts.
While "Bobos" satisfied in many ways, it also disappointed. I admit that reading it several years after it was written, and reading it after The Social Animal kind of set me up for disappointment because his descriptions of "current" consumerism was rendered prior to the recent recession, making some of the extreme examples he uses as evidence less relevant and certainly not as current. While I don't think the recession has changed the cultural and consumerist shifts Brooks describes, the descriptions are occasionally outdated. I also think the "Social Animal" incorporated many of his Bobos insights into a more coherent package.
My favorite chapter was the treatment of Bobo spirituality. Based on my own experiences and my own study, I think Brooks nails this topic! He observes that Bobo spirituality is far more experience based and far less dogmatic - whether one chooses traditional church/synagogue participation or more humanist pursuits to address your spiritual needs. The church goers are less inclined to us vs. them thinking and more inclined to tolerance toward those of other faiths and lifestyles. Dogmatic rules, ritual, and ceremony are de-emphasized or even rejected while morality and virtuous behavior (especially when it comes to the virtues of tolerance, equal rights, and human dignity as opposed to the virtues of piety, proper manners and dress, etc..) At the same time, he accurately assesses that traditional religions - vehicles for spiritual pursuit - lose much ground when the ritual, ceremony, and community duty are ignored. His descriptions and analysis of these aspects of this modern culture ring true for me and his conclusion that while Bobo spirituality has probably made us a more moral people (less racism, sexism, etc...) it has also potentially un-moored us from the traditional institutions that have informed human spirituality for so long with some likely unpleasant side effects. We've gained much but, we may be in danger of losing much at the same time and there's no telling exactly where this will lead for the future of human spirituality.
The book reads like a series of essays - which in fairness it is, kind of. This led me to be delighted with some chapters, like those devoted to the descriptions and analysis of the forces and timelines of Bourgeois Culture and Bohemian counterculture, and disappointed with some others, such as the descriptions of Bobo intellectual life and Bobo travel. Both of these chapters, while sometimes funny in a snarky way, seemed to focus on a much more narrow subset of the larger bobo experience that the rest of the book describes. In fact, I wondered if these chapters weren't a little more autobiographical than the rest. In fact, the self-deprecating humor (at least deprecating to the Bobo culture that Mr. Brooks self identifies with) was sometimes more annoying than funny as it attempted to both praise and poke fun of the accomplishments of Bobo culture.
I do appreciate Mr. Brook's cultural and sociological observations in the book and his thesis overall that the current generation of educational and financial "elites" in our country have successfully melded the best parts of both Bourgeois and Bohemian sensibilities making much about life in America and the western world better while still reconciling the age old conflict underlying these two movements.
November 1, 2007
I thought Brooks' arguments were facile and even disingenuous. He has a warm and fuzzy affection for "bourgeois-bohemian" consumerism and ignores complicated and negative issues of globalization when it suits him.
February 22, 2009
My feelings on this book are mixed, though I think I maintain my affection for David Brooks. He explores the culture of bourgeois bohemianism and it's implications for our society in terms of things like business, intellectual culture, play, politics, and spiritual life. I do, in many ways, feel like a product of the society where intellect is a marketable, capitalism is about choice and social consciousness and creativity (on the surface at least), and questioning authority is mandatory. I guess I'm glad for it in some ways, but also hate some of it-- things like "meaningful" tourism, flexodoxy, needing everything to have "texture", wearing serious hiking gear all the damn time.
The title of this book says that is about the Upper Class but that left a sour taste in my mouth. For one: I think the Upper Class he is talking about did not adopt bohemianism so much as co-opt it. He sort of suggests the Protestant Work Ethic got destroyed, but I sort of think it got worse--everything, even pleasure, is an edifying, intellectual experience. Barf. Also, I guess I wanted to know, for personal and maybe political reasons, more about the implications of this shift to Boboism for the Folk, the lower-middle class and heaven forfend, the poor. In some ways, I think it is more insulting than old-school upper-class stodginess. Smarts aren't everything, but equating smarts so clearly with class has lots of implications that make me grumpy. And shit like: Bobos like small towns and authentic people and authentic church and preservation efforts and stuff like that but only insomuch as they enjoy it...guh. Makes me feel like Boboism is as much about detachment and loftiness as anything else. Yuck. Some people care about things with their hearts and stuff.
In the end, I think this is an interesting, and fairly convincing. argument for the face of today's upper class, but I think it has troubling implications that Brooks glosses over. Or maybe didn't really intend to cover. It reminded me of history classes I took on popular culture in college, and made me think of the wheel of respectability from Mr. Sutton's class in high school. I will take the sincerity of the Rough any day... does saying this make me sort of Bobo-ish? Yeah. It probably does.
P.S. I think my parents are just straight-up Bohemians. I like them.
The title of this book says that is about the Upper Class but that left a sour taste in my mouth. For one: I think the Upper Class he is talking about did not adopt bohemianism so much as co-opt it. He sort of suggests the Protestant Work Ethic got destroyed, but I sort of think it got worse--everything, even pleasure, is an edifying, intellectual experience. Barf. Also, I guess I wanted to know, for personal and maybe political reasons, more about the implications of this shift to Boboism for the Folk, the lower-middle class and heaven forfend, the poor. In some ways, I think it is more insulting than old-school upper-class stodginess. Smarts aren't everything, but equating smarts so clearly with class has lots of implications that make me grumpy. And shit like: Bobos like small towns and authentic people and authentic church and preservation efforts and stuff like that but only insomuch as they enjoy it...guh. Makes me feel like Boboism is as much about detachment and loftiness as anything else. Yuck. Some people care about things with their hearts and stuff.
In the end, I think this is an interesting, and fairly convincing. argument for the face of today's upper class, but I think it has troubling implications that Brooks glosses over. Or maybe didn't really intend to cover. It reminded me of history classes I took on popular culture in college, and made me think of the wheel of respectability from Mr. Sutton's class in high school. I will take the sincerity of the Rough any day... does saying this make me sort of Bobo-ish? Yeah. It probably does.
P.S. I think my parents are just straight-up Bohemians. I like them.
September 30, 2008
I'm stuck between a 3.5 and a four for this, but decided to round down. (Bad math, I know.)
Put into context, this is a required reading for my Introduction to Sociology course. While I'm glad not to read a textbook full of stodgy statistics and all, this book started to get on my nerves near the end.
Brooks is an editor/writer for several papers, I believe (at least at the time of printing) so his book does generally read like a collection of articles instead of a continuous book. His tone is indeed witty, biting, slightly sarcastic, and he states straight off in the introduction there will be no statistics, and it's nothing Marx has to fear. The tone is refreshing (again, against dusty textbooks) but I think Brooks was too repetitious talking about the struggle the Bobos have to go through, and detailing the combining they do within each section - they overlap a lot. I also think he used too many examples. One doesn't really need to read each section closely to understand what he's getting at. The first two chapters really say a lot of what's in the other chapters, though Politics and Beyond may be somewhat different.
Also, as a non-American, this book references a lot of American figures I was not familiar with. I'm not sure how many Americans in my age group would be familiar with them, too, since a few people I've asked weren't sure who someone was. However, again, because he uses so many examples, I was able to figure out what kind of people they were in the context they were presented.
I did have fun reading this, and read it out loud to people around me, or during IM chats because it was so amusing, but near the end I was skimming to see if anything new was said.
Put into context, this is a required reading for my Introduction to Sociology course. While I'm glad not to read a textbook full of stodgy statistics and all, this book started to get on my nerves near the end.
Brooks is an editor/writer for several papers, I believe (at least at the time of printing) so his book does generally read like a collection of articles instead of a continuous book. His tone is indeed witty, biting, slightly sarcastic, and he states straight off in the introduction there will be no statistics, and it's nothing Marx has to fear. The tone is refreshing (again, against dusty textbooks) but I think Brooks was too repetitious talking about the struggle the Bobos have to go through, and detailing the combining they do within each section - they overlap a lot. I also think he used too many examples. One doesn't really need to read each section closely to understand what he's getting at. The first two chapters really say a lot of what's in the other chapters, though Politics and Beyond may be somewhat different.
Also, as a non-American, this book references a lot of American figures I was not familiar with. I'm not sure how many Americans in my age group would be familiar with them, too, since a few people I've asked weren't sure who someone was. However, again, because he uses so many examples, I was able to figure out what kind of people they were in the context they were presented.
I did have fun reading this, and read it out loud to people around me, or during IM chats because it was so amusing, but near the end I was skimming to see if anything new was said.
August 19, 2011
Really there is no better observer of American culture right now than David Brooks. He is so damn critical of our collective lameness and this book is well worth it.
It had been on my to-read list for a while: there are many pop culture references to "bobos" and I wanted to know more about the definition.
Bobos are a combination of overly-paid upper middle class elitists who like to act like they are crunchy and down to earth and anything but elite.
What makes it funny is the inconsistency of that effort.
Like my friend who with his wife makes more than $300,000 a year, sends his kids to private schools that are $30,000 a year and vacations in Duck.
But he makes a big show of drinking his coffee in a "Sheetz" plastic mug, and carries around a red plastic beer cup for his bottled water.
Brooks talks about how certain places - like Madison Wisc, Burlington VT, etc are hotbeds of bobos. They have a lot of money, no real industry, just information, and lots of organic chefs, free trade coffee establishments and places to recycle or compost.
A lot of fun to read - for me I try to be a little more bohemian than bourgeois but it's a constant struggle.
It had been on my to-read list for a while: there are many pop culture references to "bobos" and I wanted to know more about the definition.
Bobos are a combination of overly-paid upper middle class elitists who like to act like they are crunchy and down to earth and anything but elite.
What makes it funny is the inconsistency of that effort.
Like my friend who with his wife makes more than $300,000 a year, sends his kids to private schools that are $30,000 a year and vacations in Duck.
But he makes a big show of drinking his coffee in a "Sheetz" plastic mug, and carries around a red plastic beer cup for his bottled water.
Brooks talks about how certain places - like Madison Wisc, Burlington VT, etc are hotbeds of bobos. They have a lot of money, no real industry, just information, and lots of organic chefs, free trade coffee establishments and places to recycle or compost.
A lot of fun to read - for me I try to be a little more bohemian than bourgeois but it's a constant struggle.
January 29, 2014
There's a half-decent New Yorker article in here...and then pages upon pages of padding. The chapter on "Intellectual Life" is nothing more than a procession of easy jokes about talking heads; "Spiritual Life" contains no mention, bizarrely, of the concept of atheism; and "Politics" reminds one painfully that this book was written at the tail end of Clinton's administration, before GW Bush ended the concept of everyone getting along. If you like jokes about Restoration Hardware, by all means, read this book; if you're looking for insight or even entertainment, I can't recommend it.
November 28, 2019
This is a seductive story about the 1990's middle class and upper middle class. Reading it and following his argument hearkens back to the dream of the 90's. Even when David Brooks is lightly critiquing his bourgeoisie bohemians and his bohemian bourgeoisie, he still paints them and their lifestyle in an overall flattering light. At times it was also a fun read; you can imagine Brooks penning the scenes of the Bobos and their paradise tongue squarely in cheek and nodding slightly in appreciation and approval. However, the problems with his depiction are threefold. First, David Brooks was looking at the late 90's with rose-colored glasses even while squarely situated in the moment. Second, little to his knowledge, the quietism was about to be torn asunder by the "compassionate conservative" who he praised (see war in Iraq) and who he wrongly argued was a continuation of Clintonism and Third-Way New Democrats. Third, and perhaps most damning, lingering right underneath the quietism was boredom (see Office Space), ennui (see rates of depression), and simmering ideological projects (see Iraq war), greed (see foreclosure crisis and the Great Recession), and prejudices (see Trumpism) waiting to explode. The picture Brooks painted was too good to be true; I would like to buy into his vision, but it would be fool's gold if those underlying contradictions of late stage capitalism are not first addressed.
April 16, 2024
David Brooks is a fine writer. I have always enjoyed his articles in the Weekly Standard, the Atlantic Monthly, and currently his column in the New York Times. He is a whimsical observer of American life. His writing has an inductive quality about it. He writes about slate shower stalls, cappuccino bars, eco-tourism, and the like. Pretty soon he has painted a landscape of American cultural trends. In the introduction of "Bobos in Paradise," Brooks describes his method: "The idea is to get at the essence of cultural patterns, getting the flavor of the times without trying to pin it down with meticulous exactitude" (pg 12). In the book with which Brooks will always be associated, he allows us to taste the surprisingly pleasant combination of bourgeois and bohemian cultures.
Being a pastor, I was especially interested in reading Brooks' observations on the spiritual life of the bourgeois bohemians. Bobos, according to Brooks, crave "freedom and flexibility on the one hand and the longing for rigor and orthodoxy on the other" (pg 224). Spirituality, like other areas of Bobo life, seems to display itself in utter contradiction. Frankly, the observation rings true. I see the same conflict in the lives of my parishioners. However, the observation rings too true. I wonder if these conflicts are inherent in human nature rather than particularly Bobo nature. Perhaps, Brooks would see the rich young ruler who desired eternal life, yet could not give up his wealth as the first Bobo (Luke 18). Nonetheless, this observation does not distract from the book since Brooks' intention is to make an impression not a necessarily win an argument.
The book has one major drawback. Brooks is a master as an author of articles. The book, however, has the feel of several articles strung together. After reading his acknowledgments, I realize that is exactly how the book developed. As a result, the flow is different from chapter to chapter. The reader sometimes has difficulty making the change. If you can suffer the disjointed feel, then you will enjoy a clever perspective of early twenty-first century life.
Being a pastor, I was especially interested in reading Brooks' observations on the spiritual life of the bourgeois bohemians. Bobos, according to Brooks, crave "freedom and flexibility on the one hand and the longing for rigor and orthodoxy on the other" (pg 224). Spirituality, like other areas of Bobo life, seems to display itself in utter contradiction. Frankly, the observation rings true. I see the same conflict in the lives of my parishioners. However, the observation rings too true. I wonder if these conflicts are inherent in human nature rather than particularly Bobo nature. Perhaps, Brooks would see the rich young ruler who desired eternal life, yet could not give up his wealth as the first Bobo (Luke 18). Nonetheless, this observation does not distract from the book since Brooks' intention is to make an impression not a necessarily win an argument.
The book has one major drawback. Brooks is a master as an author of articles. The book, however, has the feel of several articles strung together. After reading his acknowledgments, I realize that is exactly how the book developed. As a result, the flow is different from chapter to chapter. The reader sometimes has difficulty making the change. If you can suffer the disjointed feel, then you will enjoy a clever perspective of early twenty-first century life.
April 15, 2010
My harsh critique (and this book doesn’t deserve harsh; it’s good, fun, and interesting) is that this is an Atlantic or New Yorker or Vanity Fair article that was expanded into a book. When I got to the end and read the acknowledgements, it turns out I was right. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. However, his unifying theme is really not supported by what he writes about.
Regardless, the parts are still very fun and well written. The individual chapters make internally logical sense but I don’t see them connected enough to be a theme or theory. I believe the idea of the U.S. elite shifting from WASPs to a meritocracy of education. I don’t know if the new elite share all of the values that he ascribes to them. I very much enjoyed his view of the life cycle of a public intellectual. I don’t really buy his new corporate person. The consumer chapter is the weakest on theory, but the funniest by describing some consumer types and poking fun at what we’ve become (guilty as charged).
My other critique of the book is that he uses his unifying bobos theme and seems to consider this group rather cynically instead of people looking to inject human values in their lives, relationships, and jobs. Maybe the values they espouse (and sometimes live) of tolerance, respect for the environment, awareness of consumption and over consumption are attempts to address real world concerns and not a self-interested one-upsmanship or narcissistic self-actualization. He has some evidence and he has his opinion but he can’t really tie it all together.
The description of those in the information/idea economy of think tanks and policy (pp. 153-156, “How to be an Intellectual Giant”) is pitch perfect – likely because he, as a columnist, has had people just like this doing his “hard work of researching, thinking and writing.” Now I’m not saying that I’m an intellectual, but that description does reverberate with me. A great read that will make you think a bit, but more likely to smile and laugh. Just don’t try to accept the theory or unifying theme too much.
Regardless, the parts are still very fun and well written. The individual chapters make internally logical sense but I don’t see them connected enough to be a theme or theory. I believe the idea of the U.S. elite shifting from WASPs to a meritocracy of education. I don’t know if the new elite share all of the values that he ascribes to them. I very much enjoyed his view of the life cycle of a public intellectual. I don’t really buy his new corporate person. The consumer chapter is the weakest on theory, but the funniest by describing some consumer types and poking fun at what we’ve become (guilty as charged).
My other critique of the book is that he uses his unifying bobos theme and seems to consider this group rather cynically instead of people looking to inject human values in their lives, relationships, and jobs. Maybe the values they espouse (and sometimes live) of tolerance, respect for the environment, awareness of consumption and over consumption are attempts to address real world concerns and not a self-interested one-upsmanship or narcissistic self-actualization. He has some evidence and he has his opinion but he can’t really tie it all together.
The description of those in the information/idea economy of think tanks and policy (pp. 153-156, “How to be an Intellectual Giant”) is pitch perfect – likely because he, as a columnist, has had people just like this doing his “hard work of researching, thinking and writing.” Now I’m not saying that I’m an intellectual, but that description does reverberate with me. A great read that will make you think a bit, but more likely to smile and laugh. Just don’t try to accept the theory or unifying theme too much.
November 12, 2015
Brooks' work of "comic sociology" is essentially a grown-up, much better researched version of my favorite blog "Stuff White People Like." Unlike the blog, it uses a loose historical basis that is semi-rigorously researched and has a general theory that it espouses. Like the blog, it is hilarious.
Brooks himself is a bobo (read, bourgeois bohemian, or the new class of privilege that got here by working hard and being smart rather than being entitled (such as the old WASPS)) so by the golden rule of making fun of people, he's allowed to, because he's one of them. The book is broken into several chapters, each detailing a piece of bobo culture (consumption, intellectual life, etc.). And while mostly I read it for a laugh and a lark, as a bobo in training, there are some larger lessons to be had from the book. The beloved bobos are not beyond Brooks' criticism, most of which probably stems from his own discontent within his life.
Example (from chapter 2: Consumption)
"When a group of Bobos stand together, observers will be awed by the subtle symphony of fabrics. Their mouths will hang open and they will think to themselves, 'Wow, there goes a cloud of nubby people. I wonder if they know where I can get some fresh fava beans.'"
Brooks himself is a bobo (read, bourgeois bohemian, or the new class of privilege that got here by working hard and being smart rather than being entitled (such as the old WASPS)) so by the golden rule of making fun of people, he's allowed to, because he's one of them. The book is broken into several chapters, each detailing a piece of bobo culture (consumption, intellectual life, etc.). And while mostly I read it for a laugh and a lark, as a bobo in training, there are some larger lessons to be had from the book. The beloved bobos are not beyond Brooks' criticism, most of which probably stems from his own discontent within his life.
Example (from chapter 2: Consumption)
"When a group of Bobos stand together, observers will be awed by the subtle symphony of fabrics. Their mouths will hang open and they will think to themselves, 'Wow, there goes a cloud of nubby people. I wonder if they know where I can get some fresh fava beans.'"
June 5, 2020
On the one hand, it's David Brooks, right? But on the other hand, he has this one observation and it's a good one: that not all hippies became yuppies, but rather kept their counter-cultural self-definition while continuing to climb the ladder of success, and thus became bourgeois bohemians, or Bobos. (It is not entirely clear to me if the distinction between yuppies and Bobos works, or if this is just a rebranding for the purpose of telling the story Brooks wants to tell, but oh well.) Brooks then proceeds to tell that story. It is a convincing story and I think he's right on the merits. But the book amounts to just telling that self-same story in different ways, cataloging in minute detail the cultural practices of the Bobos, in a way that ensured that the book would seem out of date the day it was published. There's insight here but mostly it's just making the same point over and over.
January 5, 2018
Much of this reads like Dave Barry making fun of the Bohemian Bourgeoisie, or Bobos, that he is describing as the "new establishment. But just as we're having fun, it shifts to serious social commentary. While there's much to agree with (Brooks is my favorite "conservative"), his analysis is dated. He describes an America which is becoming increasingly middle of the road, which it may have been in 2000, but is clearly not the case today.
July 11, 2016
yeah i mean the thing is, David Brooks is a good writer and funny and in many parts painfully accurate about my life goals and consumption habits, and even if i don't like his end-of-the-day warning that Lacking Real Authentic Patriotism, America Will Fall Apart, the guy has got real talent writing self-loathing comedy.
October 16, 2017
A pleasant read, but too full of cliches to be meaningful. A great deal of unverifiable conclusions coupled with an overall feel that I am reading a hard-copy of http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/. This is a shame, as the topic deserves an accessible, but more serious and academic study.
July 7, 2015
Really a very lightweight read with amusing anecdotes, but the basic premise, that there's a new upper class, is not proven in any way. It doesn't age well either, being written just before the various crashes and the Bush presidency.
Shelved as 'discarded'
July 7, 2021Amusing satirical writing, but the author proved incorrect in his predictions, and I only needed to scan it for some information (which I got).
January 31, 2021
For years, there’s been a sense that the upper middle class has ruined everything that’s remotely cool: Woodstock spirit has given way to accountants spending thousands to paint microplastics on their face at Coachella, while artist lofts are now inhabited by graphic designers and advertisers seeking a minimalist space to tap away at their MacBooks. But David Brooks is right, the bohemians have sold out, too. Those that would’ve previously outright rebelled against their parents’ professions and the establishment more generally now see no conflict in wearing opshop treasures to a rustic cafe with paint chipped tables that charges $25 for breakfast; on riding their bicycle to work where they work in marketing or “business development” for a technology start-up; of listening to the new Big Thief album through $500 headphones manufactured by a multi billion dollar multinational; on posting their anti-capitalist slogans on their Instagram story using an android phone, enriching the coffers of two of the world’s five largest companies.
Brooks argues that 1980s bourgeois culture and the 1960s bohemian counterculture has merged to form a new western establishment class, the BoBos, which has supplanted the WASP ruling elite of the 1950s and prior. It’s a book filled with searing observations, one that renders the new “Bobos” with unerring accuracy. If you’re reading this book, you’ll recognise yourself and wince as he skewers you. It was written in 2000, but as relevant as ever, with prescient observations peppered throughout, such as “the central [political] disagreement today is not the sixties versus the eighties. It is between those who have fuses the sixties and the eighties on the one side and those who reject the fusion on the other”.
Each chapter is written with a pleasing cadence, starting out at full throttle with Brooks’ wit on full display as he paints his portrait of the Bobos’ attitude to each theme (from pleasure to education to politics, with the chapter on education, where he eviscerates modern social climbing academia, particularly hilarious and worth the price of the book for that alone), before he changes tone to survey the literature, gently drawing conclusions that are always sympathetic to the Bobo class.
Brooks argues that 1980s bourgeois culture and the 1960s bohemian counterculture has merged to form a new western establishment class, the BoBos, which has supplanted the WASP ruling elite of the 1950s and prior. It’s a book filled with searing observations, one that renders the new “Bobos” with unerring accuracy. If you’re reading this book, you’ll recognise yourself and wince as he skewers you. It was written in 2000, but as relevant as ever, with prescient observations peppered throughout, such as “the central [political] disagreement today is not the sixties versus the eighties. It is between those who have fuses the sixties and the eighties on the one side and those who reject the fusion on the other”.
Each chapter is written with a pleasing cadence, starting out at full throttle with Brooks’ wit on full display as he paints his portrait of the Bobos’ attitude to each theme (from pleasure to education to politics, with the chapter on education, where he eviscerates modern social climbing academia, particularly hilarious and worth the price of the book for that alone), before he changes tone to survey the literature, gently drawing conclusions that are always sympathetic to the Bobo class.
November 19, 2020
Цікаво, сподобалося, хоча реалії десь 90-х, Клінтон-Буш, і більше американоцентричні. Доволі проста розмова про сучасну меритократію, "богемну буржуазію". Чимось перегукується з Бодрійяром.
October 16, 2022
status–income disequilibrium sounds painful
https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/22/the-...
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07...
premium mediocre
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17...
https://alexdanco.com/2021/01/22/the-...
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07...
premium mediocre
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17...
August 6, 2021
While I did finish the book, it was kind of a struggle. I just feel a lot of generalizations were made with no real evidence to back it up. I then tried to read it as more of an opinion piece, but so much of the info is just outdated at this point since it was published in 2000.
December 14, 2021
This book is absolutely brilliant. Well written, it is laced with sarcasm and dark humour. Though written over 20 years ago, it is still relevant, if not more than ever. Absolutely recommend it!!
June 28, 2022
$2 strand find.
June 9, 2018
Pretty uneven and dated. At times very funny but often a little boring and no longer relevant/true, and this is coming from someone who likes David Brooks' columns. A pre-2001 perspective.
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