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Book Review: “The Coddling of the American Mind”

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

Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

Hardcover, 269 pages

Publication Date: September 4, 2018

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: Nonfiction, Sociology and Political Studies

I made a resolution to myself in 2018 to read more nonfiction. It started with Andrew Solomon’s “The Noonday Demon” and continued on from there. Memoir, science, psychology, current events, you name it. While some books were harder to finish than others—Solomon’s 500-plus page book took me over seven weeks—I found the more I read nonfiction, the more I found myself enjoying it.

That pleasant progression came to a screeching halt with Lukianoff and Haidt’s “The Coddling of the American Mind.” The book is an exploration of Gen Z (or iGen) in college. With news stories left and right over the past five years about college students protesting speakers, demanding safe spaces and calling for staff members to resign, Lukianoff and Haidt examine the philosophical teachings and political environment they think caused this behavior. As they concisely word it, “The Coddling of the American Mind” is “a timely investigation into the campus assault on free speech and what it means for students, education, and our democracy.”

A good premise, for sure. As a Gen Z college student myself, I was curious to read about how past events and ways of thinking have led to things like microaggressions, political polarization and a rhetoric of victim versus oppressor.

As it turns out, Lukianoff and Haidt do not think very highly of the students they cover in their book. Despite revealing poor parenting practices and other outside factors are behind many of Gen Z’s misguided beliefs, the authors continually place the blame on the college students themselves. This disparity, in addition to a host of other problems, caused me to trudge through the book. It was a struggle to finish, and I was relieved when I finally did.

Part of my dislike stemmed from being unable to figure out who the authors intended this book for. In this case, I thought it would be the older generations of America, the parents and grandparents of Gen Z. If this was the case, the authors did a poor job of communication. The language was not direct or simple, and it was inundated with terms and jargon, which made appearances dozens of times throughout the entirety of the book.

If the audience was meant to be the Gen Z college students, they failed to communicate to them as well. One of the most striking examples of this is found in one of their examinations of flawed thinking they believe Gen Z exhibits. In a section on intersectionality, the authors said coddled minds seem to think all straight white men are evil, and they go on to explain how this is flawed thinking.

I get that. There are many perfectly decent straight white men. But, while the authors jumped to say not all of them are terrible people, they did not do the same for the Gen Z students they are writing about. Where is the “some college students think the world is against them, but not all?” Where is their admission of “some college kids believe they have to have a safe space to function, but not all?”

Their willingness to defend people on one side of the argument but not the other exhibits the kind of flawed thinking they condemn in their book. I definitely did not enjoy “The Coddling of the American Mind,” and I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Paige Holmes is a junior journalism major from Topeka, KS. Reading is her favorite thing to do because it teaches one how to think, imagine and live. Paige believes there is no better way to learn something or be entertained than by reading a book. Her favorite genre of books is fantasy/thriller and her favorite book is ‘Opening Moves’ by Steven James.

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