BRUNSWICK — David Brooks, New York Times Op-Ed columnist and political analyst, will deliver Bowdoin College’s 2011 Tom Cassidy Lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Brooks’ talk, titled “Social Animal and Higher Education,” is open to the public. A book signing will follow the 7 p.m. lecture in Pickard Theater, Memorial Hall.

Brooks is a keen observer of the American way of life and a savvy analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs. His column on the Op-Ed page of The New York Times was started in September 2003.

He has been a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly, and he is currently a commentator on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He is also a regular analyst on “All Things Considered.”

He is the author of two books of what he calls “comic sociology” — “Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There” and “On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense.” His newest book, “The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement,” is scheduled for release in March.

Tickets, $10, are available at the David Saul Smith Union information desk, 725-3375, during business hours.