The Coddling of the American Mind
In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.
September 2015
In This Issue
How the new political correctness is ruining education, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s letter to his son, stopping murder in New Orleans, the GOP rewrites the Iraq War, bracing for the future in Havana, the elitist allure of Joan Didion, and more
Cover Story
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A Culture of Violence
An editor’s note
Letter to My Son
“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.”
A Matter of Black Lives
Since 1980, more than 260,000 black men have been killed in America. Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, is on a crusade to stop the killing.
Reading MLK in New Zealand
More than 50 years later, the Southern Baptist preacher’s words resonate—even outside of America.
That’s Not Funny!
Today’s college students can’t seem to take a joke.
Havana on the Brink
What will happen to the Cuban city when American tourists arrive?
Fiction: Scenes From a Marriage
“What’s it like?,” Natalie said quietly. “Marriage, I mean.” Mathilde said, “Kipling called it a very long conversation.”
Dispatches
Edmon De Haro / The Atlantic The Surge Fallacy
Having misunderstood the Iraq War, U.S. Republicans are taking a dangerously hawkish turn on foreign policy.
John Cueno / The Atlantic The Test-Tube Chef
Hervé This, the father of molecular gastronomy, thinks the meals of the future should be constructed from chemical compounds.
Robin Davey / The Atlantic A Scientific Look at Bad Science
What recent research says about fraud, errors, and other dismaying academic problems
Matt Chase / The Atlantic How Wall Street’s Bankers Stayed Out of Jail
The probes into bank fraud leading up to the financial industry’s crash have been quietly closed. Is this justice?
Álvaro Domínguez / The Atlantic Thinking Outside the Cube
How offices will change—for better and for worse
Ji Lee / The Atlantic The Strange Popularity of Corsican License Plates
Why the French seem like such aggressive drivers
Joe McKendry / The Atlantic The Ultimate Dolphin Trick
A very short book excerpt
The Culture File
Marc Burckhardt / The Atlantic How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Revived Modern Myth-Telling
Stories of the famous writers of Oxford
Justin Renteria / The Atlantic Jonathan Franzen Strikes Again
His latest targets: web sleuths and feminists
John Bryson / Sygma / Corbis The Elitist Allure of Joan Didion
A big biography looks at the author’s legacy of cool.
Ellen Weinstein / The Atlantic The Fearless Erica Jong
In her 70s, she’s as eager as ever for sex and adventure.
Salman Rushdie's Self-Mockery and Antic Magic
Once again, the author comes up with a fantastic fable about colliding worlds.
Departments
The Conversation
Responses and reverberations
Graham Roumieu / The Atlantic The Big Question
What fictional city (or other locale) would you most like to inhabit?
Poetry
Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
