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The American Dream
A Cultural History
Lawrence R. Samuel
Cloth $24.95
| 978-0-8156-1007-6
| 2012
"Larry Samuel takes us over the landscape of the American
Dream, a territory that shifts from fresh to fantastic, from bold
to downtrodden in the eight decades since James Truslow
Adams minted the phrase. A compelling study of how we have
made ourselves through an idea that no one can completely
define but everyone wants a piece of."—Kenneth Lipartito, Florida International University
"Samuel’s book provides a must read
for anyone wishing to know how the
changing face of the Dream has informed
politics, everyday life and even
the nation’s identity itself."—Lary May, author of The Big Tomorrow:
Hollywood and the Politics of the American Way
"Samuel has provided a fascinating survey of our culture and character, documenting that always
elusive definition of just who exactly we really are as a people."—John Zogby, author of The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream
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Lawrence R. Samuel is the founder of Culture Planning LLC, a Miami– and New
York–based resource offering cultural insight to Fortune 500 organizations. He
is the author of The End of the Innocence: The 1964–1965 New York World’s
Fair, Future: A Recent History, Rich: The Rise and Fall of American Wealth Culture,
Freud on Madison Avenue: Motivation Research and Subliminal Advertising in
America, Supernatural America: A Cultural History, and a number of other books.
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There is no better way to understand America than by understanding
the cultural history of the American Dream. Rather than just a powerful
philosophy or ideology, the Dream is thoroughly woven into the fabric
of everyday life, playing a vital role in who we are, what we do, and
why we do it. No other idea or mythology has as much influence on
our individual and collective lives. Tracing the history of the phrase in
popular culture, Samuel gives readers a field guide to the evolution of
our national identity over the last eighty years.
Samuel tells the story chronologically, revealing that there have been
six major eras of the mythology since the phrase was coined in 1931.
Relying mainly on period magazines and newspapers as his primary
source material, the author demonstrates that journalists serving on the
front lines of the scene represent our most valuable resource to recover
unfiltered stories of the Dream. The problem, Samuel reveals, is that it
does not exist; the Dream is just that, a product of our imagination. That it
is not real ultimately turns out to be the most significant finding and what
makes the story most compelling.
6 x 9, 256 pages, notes, bibliography, index
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