They believe this plays a factor in some of the campus speech disputes as students are acculturated to fearing anything that may prove challenging and react accordingly. In Inside Higher Ed, John Warner reports, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that children suffer under a culture of “safetyism” where parents endeavor to protect their offspring from harm, and in doing so, prevent them from developing the necessary skills of resiliency. If the American university is not the space to cultivate this strong and supple liberalism, then we are in deep and lasting trouble. And so we will need citizens who are able to find ways to move on., without letting their discomfort traumatize or consume them. This liberalism will neither play down nor fetishize identity grievances, but look instead for a common and generous language to build on who we are more broadly, and to conceive more boldly what we might be able to accomplish in concert…. In his The New York Times review of the book (which focuses on elite universities) Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote: If we are going to beat back the regressive populism, mendacity and hyperpolarization in which we are currently mired, we are going to need an educated citizenry fluent in a wise and universal liberalism. On, 287 customers gave it a composite rating of 4.7 out of 5.

Cornel West co-authored a positive blurb for The Coddling of the American Mind. Prospects for establishing compassionate policies supported by super-majorities of the American people will fade. Until activists stop being so defensive and learn to be more self-critical, they’ll continue to undermine massive popular action. Condescending authoritarianism across the political spectrum sows division. Many conservatives also violate their own principles.

But Weigel’s review illustrates the problem Lukianoff and Haidt document: leftists often violate liberal principles. Numerous well-credentialed pundits lauded the essay for having “eviscerated” and “systematically demolished” the book. By Wade Lee Hudson Google’s top result for reviews of The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt is Moira Weigel’s scathing criticism published by The Guardian.

Coddling of the american mind review