Every so often, you meet people who radiate joy⁠—who seem to know why they were put on this earth, and glow with a kind of inner light. This inner peace, David Brooks argues, comes not from a life of self-centered achievement, but a life of interdependence and commitment to others. In The Second Mountain, Brooks explores the four main commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. Our personal fulfillment, he reveals, depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. We have taken individualism to the extreme, Brooks argues, and, in the process, we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows how we might repair our fractured, self-centered society, and what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives.