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

The Coddling of the American Mind

The New York Times bestseller 
 
Financial Times, TLS, Evening Standard, New Statesman Books of the Year 
 
'Excellent, their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it' Financial Times 
 
Have good intentions, over-parenting and the decline in unsupervised play led to the emergence of modern identity politics and hypersensitivity? 
 
In this book, free speech campaigner Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt investigate a new cultural phenomenon of "safetyism", beginning on American college campuses in 2014 and spreading throughout academic institutions in the English-speaking world. 
 
Looking at the consequences of paranoid parenting, the increase in anxiety and depression amongst students and the rise of new ideas about justice, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that well-intended but misguided attempts to protect young people are damaging their development and mental health, the functioning of educational systems and even democracy itself.

Excellent . . . their advice is sound . . . liberal parents, in particular, should read it

An important if disturbing book . . . Lukianoff and Haidt tell a plausible story

A compelling and timely argument against attitudes and practises that, however well-intended, are damaging our universities, harming our children and leaving an entire generation intellectually and emotionally ill-prepared for an ever-more fraught and complex world. A brave and necessary work.

No one is omniscient or infallible, so a willingness to evaluate new ideas is vital to understanding our world. Yet universities, which ought to be forums for open debate, are developing a reputation for dogmatism and intolerance. Haidt and Lukianoff, distinguished advocates of freedom of expression, offer a deep analysis of what's going wrong on campus, and how we can hold universities to their highest ideals.

Our behavior in society is not immune to the power of rational scientific analysis. Through that lens, prepare yourself for a candid look at the softening of America, and what we can do about it.

We can talk ourselves into believing that some kinds of speech will shatter us, or we can talk ourselves out of that belief. The authors know the science. We are not as fragile as our self-appointed protectors suppose. Read this deeply informed book to become a more resilient soul in a more resilient democracy.

Greg Lukianoff

Rikki Schlott

No one has documented the facts and causes of this alarming trend more thoroughly than Greg Lukianoff, joined here by a collaborator, Rikki Schlott

Brilliant, an essential book... takes us one step further than simply describing and analyzing the problem. They offer serious, rational, and cogent solutions

Important and very timely... it should be required reading for everyone who believes in freedom of speech

Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott make an inconvertible case: If we had set out as a society to generate a doctrine designed specifically to demoralize young people-to deprive them of hope and fill them with anxiety-we could not have done better than Cancel Culture, which emphasizes victimhood, emotional fragility, a penchant for avoidance and the absolute right to self-conceptualization. We've enabled the purveyors of malicious gossip, the reputation-savagers, the masters of innuendo-and allowed them to cloak themselves in the guise of compassion. Lukianoff and Schlott are rightly calling on all of us to stand up and say so

Cancel Culture is very real and very dangerous - and this book is the most comprehensive look at the rot threatening our institutions and freedoms

A humanizing and passionate cry for intellectual independence and those who want to think and speak for themselves

This riveting book presents compelling stories about Cancel Culture and its devastating impact ... a game-changer in the Culture Wars

How Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All

Why bother refuting your opponents, when you can just take away their platform or career? 
 
First Amendment rights lawyer Greg Lukianoff teams up with Rikki Schlott to show how a trend of intolerance on university campuses in America has spread to a wide range of workplaces and cultural spaces, which are giving up on a culture of free speech in favour of cancel culture. Drawing on original research and data, along with hundreds of new examples from publishing to psychotherapy, comedy, science and medicine, this book shows how the left and the right both work to silence their enemies in different ways. It's not simply a matter of Twitter spats; people are losing their jobs, livelihoods and sometimes their lives over it. 
 
Eye-opening, urgent and transformative, The Canceling of the American Mind argues that cancel culture is not merely a moral panic, but a dysfunctional way in which people battle for power, status and dominance: moving us away from being able to argue productively, listen generously and ultimately be civil when we disagree. This book offers concrete steps towards reclaiming a culture of free speech, with materials specifically tailored for parents, teachers, business leaders and all those who use social media. It shows how we can all harness intellectual humility to become more resilient and open minded.

Greg Lukianoff

Books by Greg Lukianoff

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