a book

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Name: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Rating: 5 (18 reviews)
Author: Jonathan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff
ISBN: 9780735224896

Jonathan Haidt & Greg Lukianoff · 2018 · 338 pages

New York Times Bestseller • Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction • A New York Times Notable Book • Bloomberg Best Book of 2018 • One of Bill Gates’s Top Five Books of All Time

“Their distinctive contribution to the higher-education debate is to meet safetyism on its own, psychological turf . . . Lukianoff and Haidt tell us that safetyism undermines the freedom of inquiry and speech that are indispensable to universities.” —Jonathan Marks, Commentary

“The remedies the book outlines should be considered on college campuses, among parents of current and future students, and by anyone longing for a more sane society.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Something has been going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising—on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen?

First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life.

Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction.

This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.

recommended by 18 people

sourced from public statements

Glenn Beck
“Just finished The Coddling of the American mind by @glukianoff Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt. Insightful. Straight forward and very helpful. A book that not only correctly identifies what ails us but also gives practical steps to cure. MUST READ”↗
Richard Dawkins
“The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, audiobook read by @JonHaidt. Utterly superb book, recommended unreservedly. Brilliant book, exposes one of the major things wrong with society today. Please please read it.”↗
Tom Bilyeu
“The best books I read in 2019👇 1. Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins 2. A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Sai Goddam and Ogi Ogas 3. The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray 4. The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker 5. The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff”↗
Daniel Negreanu
“@JazzHandMeDowns @jay_schiavone Have you read Coddling of the American Mind? Excellent book on how, through good intentions we hurt our children by not allowing them fail and learn from it, among other things.”↗
Renee DiResta
“@MichaelSmithLL @antoniogm That book is great”↗
Bethany S. Mandel
“A wonderful book, but the response to the damage that we have done to children over the last two years is not that they are coddled. Especially not when it is coming in response to policies that impact their emotional development.”↗
Jason Gregor
“A fascinating read. First chapter talks about iGen (born after 1995) and the need for emotional safety described as “one should be safe not just from car accidents and sexual assault but from people who disagree with you.”Not sure if accurate but they got me interested to read on”↗
Joe Rogan
Vinod Khosla
Eric Weinstein
Scott Galloway
Max Levchin
Bryan Johnson
Michael Mauboussin
Derren Brown
Jenny Kleeman
Julian Shapiro
Bret Weinstein