SKU: 59605229704

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

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The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for FailureNew York Times Bestseller Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction A New York Times Notable Book Bloomberg Best Book of 2018 One of Bill Gates's Top Five Books of All Time "Their distinctive contribution to the higher education debate is to meet safetyism on its own, psychological turf . . . Lukianoff and Haidt tell us that safetyism undermines the freedom of inquiry and speech that are indispensable to universities."

New York Times Bestseller - Finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction - A New York Times Notable Book - Bloomberg Best Book of 2018 - One of Bill Gates's Top Five Books of All Time

"Their distinctive contribution to the higher-education debate is to meet safetyism on its own, psychological turf . . . Lukianoff and Haidt tell us that safetyism undermines the freedom of inquiry and speech that are indispensable to universities." --Jonathan Marks, Commentary

"The remedies the book outlines should be considered on college campuses, among parents of current and future students, and by anyone longing for a more sane society." --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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, author of The Anxious Generation, 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.
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SKU: 59605229704

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Omaha, US
★★★★★ 4
Interesting Mutter
interesting
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Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2026
C
C. Seiden
West Palm Beach, US
★★★★★ 5
Convenient Accessibility
It's great to have a company card that my employees can have access to for office supplies and other purchases. Thank you Amazon 🙏
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Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2026
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Verified Purchase
Bice
Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 5
The Christmas movie no TV stations ever seem to show during the holidays
Since Amazon lumps the reviews for all the various releases of this movie together, I want to be clear that this review is for the single disc, 132 minute blu-ray version with the cover picture of smiling man made of bricks with the word "Brazil" flying out of the top of his head. For those who don't know the history of this movie - there are at least three different versions. It was originally released in Europe as a nearly two and half hour long film. The studio who financed it didn't like that version because it A. was too long, B. was too uncommercial and C. had a dark, depressing ending. The contract they had with Gilliam stipulated that the movie had to be less than 2 hours and 15 minutes, so it could have multiple prime-time showings in theaters. They suggested he cut the ending. Gilliam refused, so the studio took it upon themselves to create the "Love Conquers All" version, which chopped out almost an hour of footage - they only kept the parts that showed the main character Sam in a heroic light, anything that contributed to the Sam/Jill love story and anything that featured Robert DiNero. And, of course, the ending was changed to a happy ending by removing the final scene. Also, to make the plot easier to follow, they used some alternate takes, some deleted footage and hired voice actors to overdub dialog. Unsurprisingly, Gilliam didn't want that version released, so he finally edited the movie down to 2 hours and 12 minutes, kept the dark ending and made a few other minor changes and the studio was contractually obligated to release that version to theaters in the United States. It's this US version that appears on the blu-ray, with absolutely no additional features (not even the Gilliam commentary that's included on most other releases of the film). Annoyingly, they also added advertisements for other movies to the main menu screen. But I'm still happy to have this version, because it's the first time I've seen the "US edit" since originally seeing the film in a theater on the campus of Penn State back in my college days. I can't really write an unbiased review of the movie itself, because from that first viewing I became obsessed with both Brazil and Terry Gilliam's films in general. I bought all his movies on VHS as soon as they came out and eventually replaced them with DVDs. I bought the 3-DVD Criterion "Final Cut" version of Brazil back when it was an expensive new release. I was surprised that it included scenes I'd never seen before - I think it's based mostly on the European version, with some additional tweaks by Gilliam. It also included the "Love Conquers All" version of the movie and a ton of bonus features. Sadly though, it wasn't animorphic, so on my widescreen TV it put black letterboxing bars on all four sides, shrinking the picture down to about 60% of the screen. This blu-ray was exactly what I was looking for. While it's missing a few (non-essential) scenes, it's the version of the movie that I "grew up" with and is presented in full 16X9 animorphic widescreen. It's the best looking version I've seen since originally seeing it in the theater. For example, I never really noticed the makeup on Katherine Hellmond at the beginning of the movie to make her look older (pre-surgery), but it's clearly visible on the blu-ray. I've always felt bad for one actress during the explosion scene in the restaurant because it looks like she really does get hit by some of the flying debris - the blu-ray is maybe a little too clear there, because now I can tell it's just a dressed-up mannequin. As for the movie itself - it's one of those films you'll either love or hate. Its alternate-reality, retro-futuristic look makes it seem nearly as fresh and amazing today as it did when it first came out. And the background plot of a government bureaucracy turning a country into a surveillance state in response to a perceived terrorist threat - I know it was based on things happening in England at the time, but it's like Gilliam had a crystal ball and looked 30 years into the United States' future. The alternating between "reality" and dream sequences and the general Gilliam quirkiness will probably put a lot of people off, but it's what drew me to this movie in the first place. If you become fanatical about the movie like I am, you'll need both this blu-ray and the Criterion release. To fully experience the film you need to see every version (even the Love Conquers All version) because each one includes bits that aren't in any of the others. If you do decide to watch Brazil and find that you like it, give some of Gilliam's more recent movies a try, like The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassis and The Zero Theorem. Really, if you like odd, out-of-the-mainstream movies that you'll be thinking about for days after you see them, you can't go wrong with pretty much any Terry Gilliam film.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2016
D
Verified Purchase
Doug S.
Fort Morgan, US
★★★★★ 5
One Of My Top Ten Movies
It's a Terry Gilliam masterpiece that blends a touch of Monty Python, Twilight Zone, and Broadway! Worth the watch!
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Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2026
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Verified Purchase
Tripp Moore
Massapequa, US
★★★★★ 5
Visually Brilliant, Darkly Funny, and Still Uncomfortably Relevant
I rented Brazil through Amazon primarily because I’d heard it described as a dystopian sci-fi classic, but I wasn’t fully prepared for just how strange, creative, and visually dense this movie actually is. It feels like George Orwell had a stress dream after getting trapped inside a malfunctioning government office building designed by someone obsessed with ducts and paperwork. The film does an incredible job blending dark comedy, bureaucracy, paranoia, retro-futurism, and outright absurdity into something that somehow still feels coherent. The world-building is fantastic in a very grimy, claustrophobic way where technology exists everywhere but almost none of it works properly. Everything feels intentionally inefficient and overcomplicated, which makes the setting weirdly believable. Jonathan Pryce does a great job playing a character slowly unraveling under the weight of an increasingly surreal system, and Robert De Niro’s appearance is memorable despite limited screen time. The production design is honestly one of the standout elements of the entire film. Nearly every scene has some strange visual detail happening in the background that adds to the oppressive but oddly humorous atmosphere. This definitely is not a fast-paced mainstream sci-fi movie, though. The pacing can feel slow at times, and the tone swings between satire, anxiety, fantasy, and bleakness in ways that probably won’t work for everyone. It’s the kind of movie where you occasionally stop and think, “What exactly am I watching?” while still wanting to keep watching. The Amazon streaming quality itself was good with no playback issues during my rental, and the film benefits from a decent screen because there’s so much visual detail packed into the sets and cinematography. Overall, Brazil is one of those movies that feels increasingly relevant the older it gets. Strange, unsettling, funny, visually inventive, and much more layered than I expected.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2026

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