A finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction A New York Times
Notable Book Bloomberg Best Book of 2018 The New York Times bestseller! Something has been
going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students
and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of
anxiety depression and suicide are rising-on campus as well as nationally. How did this
happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how
the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become
increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn't kill you makes you
weaker always trust your feelings and life is a battle between good people and evil people.
These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and
ancient wisdom from many cultures. Embracing these untruths-and the resulting culture of
safetyism-interferes with young people's social emotional and intellectual development. It
makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of
life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote
the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful
parenting the decline of unsupervised child-directed play and the new world of social media
that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus including the
corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They
situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America's rapidly rising political
polarization and dysfunction. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on
college campuses today or has children or is concerned about the growing inability of
Americans to live work and cooperate across party lines.
