Books by Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt is Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU Stern School of Business. Previously, he was a psychologist at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis.
“Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (The Coddling of the American Mind, The Happiness Hypothesis) has a new book out, The Anxious Generation, which has been a huge hit in the United States, sitting on the bestseller lists for weeks. In it, he argues that the age of the smartphone has royally messed up our adolescents. ‘Continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities’ disturbs their sleep, fragments their attention, and acts, effectively, as an addictive substance. He links the rise of social media to a spike in mental illness and anxiety.” Read more...
Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024
Cal Flyn, Five Books Editor
The Coddling of the American Mind
by Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt
New paperback release: 20th August 2019 (US); 6th June 2019 (UK)
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure was named the best book of 2018 by Bloomberg, as well as spending four weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Written by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and president of FIRE Greg Lukianoff, it has been a fiercely controversial book, addressing the rise of what the authors call "safetyism" on college campuses. As such, it examines the rise of "safe spaces", "no-platforming", and "trigger warnings" alongside inflammatory free speech debates.
In The Coddling of the American Mind, the authors propose the provocative thesis that many of the steps currently taken to safeguard psychological health on college campuses may, in fact, be doing more harm in the long run. With rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide rising, the authors say this is a call for alarm.
Jonathan Haidt spoke to Five Books about the best books on happiness.
“Haidt has a formula for happiness: Genetics + conditions + choices. This is a formula for a realistic approach to trying to achieve the good life. There’s something out of your control, which is your genetic heritage. We’d be foolish to deny that this has something to do with who we are…But conditions and choices are things that are more under our control. He talks about how the conditions that you live under affect your happiness…He uses a lot of Eastern as well as Western philosophy. He looks at some of the major insights and chunks of wisdom within these traditions, but then he relates them to contemporary psychological research, and he assesses them in relation to that.” Read more...
The best books on Philosophy and Everyday Living
Emrys Westacott, Philosopher
Interviews with Jonathan Haidt
The best books on Happiness, recommended by Jonathan Haidt
Most of us want to be happy, and yet it’s hard to achieve. Jonathan Haidt, psychologist and author of the classic The Happiness Hypothesis, talks us through five books, old and new, to better understand happiness.
Interviews where books by Jonathan Haidt were recommended
The best books on Philosophy and Everyday Living, recommended by Emrys Westacott
Philosophy is sometimes assumed to be a dry, academic subject but it also has much to say about how we live, love and relate to each other. Emrys Westacott chooses the best books on philosophy and everyday living.
The best books on Neuroscience, recommended by David Brooks
It’s hard to understand many things about the world around us without a knowledge of the unconscious workings of the brain, argues the New York Times columnist David Brooks. He chooses five accessible books that’ll get you into neuroscience as well.
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1
Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives
by Michael Joseph Gross -
2
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art
by James Nestor -
3
Forever Strong: A New, Science-Based Strategy for Aging Well
by Gabrielle Lyon -
4
Outlive: The Art and Science of Longevity
by Peter Attia & with Bill Gifford -
5
Music as Medicine: How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic Power
by Daniel Levitin -
6
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt
New in Health
New in Health
What's good for your health can be bewildering at times, as new studies reveal new angles on what's good for you and what's bad for you. What to eat can be particularly confusing, as we try to differentiate the latest fad from what actually matters to our long-term health.
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1
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt -
2
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
by Oliver Burkeman -
3
Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide
by Keith Payne -
4
A Little History of Psychology
by Nicky Hayes -
5
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
by Charles Duhigg
Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
Notable Self-Help & Psychology Books of 2024, recommended by Cal Flyn
Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a concise round-up of the most notable newly released psychology and self-help books of 2024, taking in a study of partisanship in Trump's America, a strongly-argued case against 'the phone-based childhood,' and a manual for improving your own communication skills.
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1
How Economics Explains the World (US)/ The Shortest History of Economics (UK)
by Andrew Leigh -
2
Maurice and Maralyn: A Whale, a Shipwreck, a Love Story (US title: A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck)
by Sophie Elmhirst -
3
Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan
by Ruby Lal -
4
How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History
by Josephine Quinn -
5
Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense
Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell
Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
Nonfiction Books to Look Out for in Early 2024, recommended by Sophie Roell
From the origins of sex to the effects of social media, from the invention of the wheel to the race against climate change, Five Books editor Sophie Roell gives an overview of the new nonfiction books appearing in January, February and March of 2024.
