The Coddling of the American Mind

How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

By: Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff

Narrated by: Jonathan Haidt

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

A timely investigation into the new "safety culture" on campus and the dangers it poses to free speech, mental health, education, and ultimately democracy

The generation now coming of age has been taught three Great Untruths: their feelings are always right; they should avoid pain and discomfort; and they should look for faults in others and not themselves. These three Great Untruths are part of a larger philosophy that sees young people as fragile creatures who must be protected and supervised by adults. But despite the good intentions of the adults who impart them, the Great Untruths are harming kids by teaching them the opposite of ancient wisdom and the opposite of modern psychological findings on grit, growth, and antifragility.

The result is rising rates of depression and anxiety, along with endless stories of college campuses torn apart by moralistic divisions and mutual recriminations.

This is a book about how we got here. First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt take us on a tour of the social trends stretching back to the 1980s that have produced the confusion and conflict on campus today, including the loss of unsupervised play time and the birth of social media, all during a time of rising political polarization.

This is a book about how to fix the mess. The culture of “safety” and its intolerance of opposing viewpoints has left many young people anxious and unprepared for adult life, with devastating consequences for them, for their parents, for the companies that will soon hire them, and for a democracy that is already pushed to the brink of violence over its growing political divisions. Lukianoff and Haidt offer a comprehensive set of reforms that will strengthen young people and institutions, allowing us all to reap the benefits of diversity, including viewpoint diversity.

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

©2018 Greg Lukianoff (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A disturbing and comprehensive analysis of recent campus trends… Lukianoff and Haidt notice something unprecedented and frightening… The consequences of a generation unable or disinclined to engage with ideas that make them uncomfortable are dire for society, and open the door - accessible from both the left and the right - to various forms of authoritarianism.” (Thomas Chatterton Williams, The New York Times Book Review - cover review and Editors’ Choice selection)

"So how do you create ‘wiser kids’? Get them off their screens. Argue with them. Get them out of their narrow worlds of family, school and university. Boot them out for a challenging Gap year. It all makes perfect sense…the cure seems a glorious revelation." (Philip Delves Broughton, Evening Standard)

“Perhaps the strongest argument in Haidt and Lukianoff’s favour...is this: if you see this issue as being about little more than a few sanctimonious teenagers throwing hissy fits on campus then, yes, it is probably receiving too much attention. But if you accept their premise, that it’s really a story about mental wellbeing and emotional fragility, about a generation acting out because it has been set up to fail by bad parenting and poorly designed institutions, then their message is an urgent one. And it is one that resonates well beyond dusty libraries and manicured quadrangles, into all of our lives.” (Josh Glancy, The Sunday Times (UK))

Great follow up to a great article

I read the article of this in The Atlantic and thought it was great without noticing the authors. I later hear John Haidt on a podcast with Sam Harris talking about this and immediately downloaded it. No regrets. It’s just as good if not better than the article. Very balanced and super insightful. Great for understanding a large part of what’s going on in American politics and great for any parents raising the next generation.

The Real Way to Make America Great Again

Quite possibly the best analysis I've heard of some of the major challenges facing this country and the western world as well as the proposal of realistic and effective solutions. This should be a standard textbook for highschool and first year college students and a policy manual for university presidents, administrators, and faculty. I've listened to it then bought the hardcopy for myself and a few of my friends. Right, left, or center, this book will enlighten you.

worth the time

very well presented case for change .well worth listening to and thinking about. well done

Everyone should listen to this book!

It was a rare pleasure to be able to listen to something by authors that have strong, generally liberal, political views, but who put principles ahead of politics to describe where much of America's problems today are really coming from.

I’m not fragile because Ive never been

Being part of the generation X, raising IGen kids, and treating both generations in my mental health practice, I only can say THANK you! Because many things that I’ve experienced in my practice and in my life confirm that I wasn’t crazy at all! I learned new concepts regarding fragility which definitely makes total sense! I’m sharing this with colleagues and educators. We must change the trajectory of the future generations and society and we only can achieve it if we stop seeing each other as the enemy or as fragile flowers incapable of living a life full of joy and success.

Informative!

highly educational. arguments are well laid out and context is explained perfectly. Helps one completely understand the differences in generation and why kids grow up to be overly shielded by parents. Every kid should read this before going to college and every parent should read this before sending their kid to college!

A Future Less Fragile and More Hopeful

This is a really important work. It presents a clear and compelling telling of certain trends in American culture, campus culture, parenting culture, that deeply affect the whole of American life. If we want to have better conversations, we need to embody more charitable philosophies, more readiness to feel discomfort, and more desire for common ground.

While this book isn't the whole story, it adds to it in important ways. What Haidt and Lukianoff don't cover extensively is the long, problematic history that has lead so many people on campuses and beyond to feel erased. Histories of sexism, racism, homophobia, etc.--these set the stage for what the authors describe as "call out" culture. Their proposed solutions for a divided America strike me as on point, but we didn't arrive at this time and place out of a vacuum. But, even if their perspectives make the reader feel frustrated or uncomfortable, that is no reason to ignore the great observations they make. In fact, we should grapple with these ideas because they might challenge us in important ways. I highly recommend this book.

Timely, Important, and Thought-Provoking

This book should be required reading/listening for educators and parents. It’s a balanced, reasoned, rational discussion of several disturbing trends on college campuses, especially American colleges and universities.

Recommended To My Superintendent Uncle

My uncle has been in education his whole life, and while this book was far less shocking to him than it was me, we both found it to be informative.

Now I can't speak for him, largely because he hasn't even finished the book, but I can say that I've learned a great deal. I also have a lot of new and soon-to-be-new mothers in my social circle, all of whom I've hooked up with the Let Grow website and talked about this book with.

Quite good

Haidt is a pretty straight shooter and honest about his leanings. I think there is plenty that left and right will be challenged by. Well researched, informative, and even entertaining.