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

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.

Jonathan Haidt is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Righteous Mind, and is one of the most cited intellectuals in the media. A professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, Haidt is also the founder of Heterodox Academy, an organization consisting of some of the nation's most respected professors that is committed to viewpoint diversity in higher education. He's been named a "top global thinker" by Foreign Policy magazine, and his TED talk on moral foundations of liberals and conservatives has been viewed over 2.6 million times.

Greg Lukianoff is President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and likely the best-known expert in campus free speech in the country. FIRE is well-known to all major media outlets and major universities. Greg is a frequent speaker around the country on these issues.