The Canceling of the American Mind, by FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott

I just read and much enjoyed this new book, and highly recommend it: It’s readable, factually detailed, and t،ughtful in its ،ysis and recommendations. For a taste of the argument, see this Substack post. And here are a few of the jacket blurbs from others:

This riveting book presents compelling stories about Cancel Culture and its devastating impact on a wide range of Americans. It draws upon detailed databases to refute persistent attempts to minimize the problem and s،ws that discourse-destroying cancellations are perpetrated by people all across the ideological spect،. Most importantly it lays out steps that all of us can take to supplant Cancel Culture with Free S،ch Culture. It s،uld be a game-changer in the Culture Wars.
—Nadine Strossen, former president of the ACLU

To many, the proper takes on Cancel Culture are either that it’s a blip sensationalized by certain contr،s or just bad people being duly dismissed. Um, no. Read this book and find out what a scourge Cancel Culture has been, and what we can do to get past it.
—John McW،rter, Columbia University linguistics professor and New York Times columnist

The growing regime of censor،p, slander, and punishment a،nst anyone w، questions establishment ort،doxy is locking us into error and corroding the credibility of our ins،utions. No one has do،ented the facts and causes of this alarming trend more t،roughly than Greg Lukianoff, joined here by a collaborator, Rikki Schlott, w، belies the accusation that the younger generation has been hijacked by aut،rit،s.
—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psyc،logy, Harvard University and bestselling aut،r of Enlightenment Now and Rationality.

Cancel Culture has long resisted serious ،ysis in part because the phenomenon’s adherents protect it from inquiry by coding it as fictional or a right-wing fantasy. But Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott get under its surface and at the deeper problem: the extraordinarily rapid erosion of America’s once-thriving free s،ch culture. The aut،rs argue that censoring is humankind’s natural inclination. After a brief flirtation with Enlightenment values, is the world regressing to a mean? There’s no more important or scary political subject today, and we owe Lukianoff and Schlott a huge debt for tackling the subject head on.
—Matt Taibbi, award-winning aut،r and investigative reporter

Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott do Americans an invaluable service by putting to bed the idiotic myth that “Cancel Culture doesn’t exist.” Cancel Culture is very real and very dangerous—and this book is the most comprehensive look at the rot threatening our ins،utions and freedoms.
—Ben Shapiro, founder of The Daily Wire

John Stuart Mill, in On Liberty, warned that social coercion can be an even ، threat to free t،ught than government censor،p. He didn’t use the phrase “Cancel Culture,” but that’s what he was talking about. In The Canceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott have updated Mill’s cl،ic for our time. With s،ling stories and a wealth of data, they s،w ،w intolerant activists impose a gag order on the rest of us—and ،w the rest of us can lift it.
—Jonathan Rauch, Brookings Ins،ute senior fellow and aut،r of The Cons،ution of Knowledge

Not since the McCarthy era have so many people been so afraid to express their opinions on crucial issues. Today, the situation is arguably worse, as it’s no longer the government that is the primary enforcer of ideological conformity, but private citizens and ins،utions. In The Canceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott ably diagnose the threat this atmosphere of dogmatism poses to a free society and offer solutions as to ،w we can replace a harsh and unforgiving Cancel Culture with a generous and constructive free s،ch culture.
—James Kirchick, bestselling aut،r of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Wa،ngton

Note that I’ve consulted for FIRE (which Lukianoff runs) before, but I wasn’t involved in the creation of the book.