The Making of the American Dream, Vol 2

The Making of the American Dream, Vol 2

Author: Lewis E. Kaplan

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 0875866980

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Any history that touts itself as unconventional is bound to raise some hackles when it challenges traditional interpretations of our nation's past. Yet history is continually under revision. This 2-volume work, covering America''s first 300 years, differs from others in seeking to debunk numerous flattering and conventionally accepted myths.aReading between the lines of what we''ve all been taught as US history, the author probes a little deeper into what perhaps was never denied ? but was never spelled out, either. Some inconvenient questions emerge. Was lust for land the driving force behind every war in US history?In a lively narrative, Kaplan demonstrates that in many ways Lincoln was our worst wartime president (save Madison), and that Reconstruction was doomed from the start.The author describes how an agricultural hinterland evolved into an industrial colossus and a society of small towns grew into a nation of large cities. When it did, what had once been the world's leading republican government gradually edged towards becoming a democracy ? a form of government abjured by the Founding Fathers.The War Between the States and the rapid industrialization of the North was made possible by tapping the vast resources which lay underneath the land. Oil, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, and other minerals made the US the richest and most powerful nation in the world by the end of the nineteenth century, when this book concludes.The book also chronicles the fledgling Labor movement in the 19th century, handily discredited through equation with ?anarchists, ? and explores the cynicism with which McKinley embarked on the Spanish?American War.The basic thrust of this 2-volume work is neither to expose America's blemishes nor to eulogize its virtues.a Rather, the author focuses on US history from a different perspective than is usually accepted. Readers may disagree with his interpretations but will find his arguments intriguing."


The Making of the American Dream, Vol. II

The Making of the American Dream, Vol. II

Author: Lewis E. Kaplan

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0875866956

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Any history that touts itself as unconventional is bound to raise some hackles when it challenges traditional interpretations of our nation's past. Yet history is continually under revision. This 2-volume work, covering America''s first 300 years, differs from others in seeking to debunk numerous flattering and conventionally accepted myths.aReading between the lines of what we''ve all been taught as US history, the author probes a little deeper into what perhaps was never denied ? but was never spelled out, either. Some inconvenient questions emerge. Was lust for land the driving force behind every war in US history?In a lively narrative, Kaplan demonstrates that in many ways Lincoln was our worst wartime president (save Madison), and that Reconstruction was doomed from the start.The author describes how an agricultural hinterland evolved into an industrial colossus and a society of small towns grew into a nation of large cities. When it did, what had once been the world's leading republican government gradually edged towards becoming a democracy ? a form of government abjured by the Founding Fathers.The War Between the States and the rapid industrialization of the North was made possible by tapping the vast resources which lay underneath the land. Oil, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, and other minerals made the US the richest and most powerful nation in the world by the end of the nineteenth century, when this book concludes.The book also chronicles the fledgling Labor movement in the 19th century, handily discredited through equation with ?anarchists, ? and explores the cynicism with which McKinley embarked on the Spanish?American War.The basic thrust of this 2-volume work is neither to expose America's blemishes nor to eulogize its virtues.a Rather, the author focuses on US history from a different perspective than is usually accepted. Readers may disagree with his interpretations but will find his arguments intriguing."


The Making of the American Dream, Vol. I

The Making of the American Dream, Vol. I

Author: Lewis E. Kaplan

Publisher: Algora Publishing

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0875866948

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Any history that touts itself as unconventional is bound to raise some hackles when it challenges traditional interpretations of our nation?s past. Yet history is continually under revision. This 2-volume work, covering America's first 300 years, differs from others in seeking to debunk numerous flattering and conventionally accepted myths.℗¡Reading between the lines of what we've all been taught as US history, the author probes a little deeper into what perhaps was never denied ? but was never spelled out, either. Some inconvenient questions emerge. Was lust for land the driving force behind e.


Who Stole the American Dream?

Who Stole the American Dream?

Author: Hedrick Smith

Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks

Published: 2013-08-27

Total Pages: 626

ISBN-13: 0812982053

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Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. In his bestselling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today. This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth. This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists. Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined. This magnificent work of history and reportage is filled with the penetrating insights, provocative discoveries, and the great empathy of a master journalist. Finally, Smith offers ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream. Praise for Who Stole the American Dream? “[A] sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience.”—The Huffington Post “Some fine work has been done in explaining the mess we’re in. . . . But no book goes to the headwaters with the precision, detail and accessibility of Smith.”—The Seattle Times “Sweeping in scope . . . [Smith] posits some steps that could alleviate the problems of the United States.”—USA Today “Brilliant . . . [a] remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Smith enlivens his narrative with portraits of the people caught up in events, humanizing complex subjects often rendered sterile in economic analysis. . . . The human face of the story is inseparable from the history.”—Reuters


Making Our Way Home

Making Our Way Home

Author: Blair Imani

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Published: 2020-01-14

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1984856928

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A powerful illustrated history of the Great Migration and its sweeping impact on Black and American culture, from Reconstruction to the rise of hip hop. Over the course of six decades, an unprecedented wave of Black Americans left the South and spread across the nation in search of a better life--a migration that sparked stunning demographic and cultural changes in twentieth-century America. Through gripping and accessible historical narrative paired with illustrations, author and activist Blair Imani examines the largely overlooked impact of The Great Migration and how it affected--and continues to affect--Black identity and America as a whole. Making Our Way Home explores issues like voting rights, domestic terrorism, discrimination, and segregation alongside the flourishing of arts and culture, activism, and civil rights. Imani shows how these influences shaped America's workforce and wealth distribution by featuring the stories of notable people and events, relevant data, and family histories. The experiences of prominent figures such as James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Ella Baker, and others are woven into the larger historical and cultural narratives of the Great Migration to create a truly singular record of this powerful journey.


The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream

The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream

Author: Robert C. Hauhart

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-30

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 1000781569

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The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream: Volume 2 explores the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the American Dream in both theory and reality in the twenty-first century. This collection of essays brings together leading scholars from a range of fields to further develop the themes and issues explored in the first volume. The concept of the American Dream, first expounded by James Truslow Adams in The Epic of America in 1931, is at once both ubiquitous and difficult to define. The term perfectly captures the hopes of freedom, opportunity and upward social mobility invested in the nation. However, the American Dream appears increasingly illusory in the face of widening inequality and apparent lack of opportunity, particularly for the poor and ethnic, or otherwise marginalized, minorities in the United States. As such, an understanding of the American Dream through both theoretical analyses and empirical studies, whether qualitative or quantitative, is crucial to understanding contemporary America. Like the first volume of The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream, this collection will be of great interest to students and researchers in a range of fields in the humanities and social sciences.


Immigrant Architect: Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream (The History Makers Series)

Immigrant Architect: Rafael Guastavino and the American Dream (The History Makers Series)

Author: Berta de Miguel

Publisher: Tilbury House Publishers and Cadent Publishing

Published: 2020-04-07

Total Pages: 58

ISBN-13: 0884488144

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Booklist Starred Review Named to the 2022 Texas Topaz Nonfiction Reading List The Spanish architects Rafael Guastavino Sr. and hisson, Rafael Guastavino Jr., designed more than one thousand iconic spaces across New York City and the United States, such as the New York City Hall Subway Station (still a tourist destination though no longer active), the Manhattan Federal Reserve Bank, the Nebraska State Capitol, the Great Hall of Ellis Island, the Oyster bar at Grand Central Terminal in New York, the Elephant House at the Bronx Zoo, the soaring tiled vaults under the Queensboro Bridge, the central dome of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, and the Boston Public Library. Written in the voice of the son, who was eight years old in 1881 when he immigrated to America with his father, this is their story. Rafael Guastavino Sr. was 39 when he left a successful career as an architect in Barcelona. American cities—densely packed and built largely of wood—were experiencing horrific fires, and Guastavino had the solution: The soaring interior spaces created by his tiled vaults and domes made buildings sturdier, fireproof, and beautiful. What he didn’t have was fluent English. Unable to win design commissions, he transferred control of the company to his American-educated son, whose subsequent half-century of inspired design work resulted in major contributions to the built environment of America. Immigrant Architect is an introduction to architectural concepts and a timely reminder of immigrant contributions to America. The book includes four route maps for visiting Guastavino-designed spaces in New York City: uptown, midtown, downtown, and Prospect Park.


Lincoln's American Dream

Lincoln's American Dream

Author: Kenneth L. Deutsch

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 853

ISBN-13: 1597973904

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Despite the voluminous literature on the central figure in American history, no other book in the field of political science compares to "Lincoln's American Dream." It addresses comprehensively the overarching themes of Lincoln's political thought and leadership through provocative and divergent interpretations from leading scholars. Each chapter is devoted to one of these major themes about Lincoln: - The Declaration and equality - Political ambition - Race and slavery - His democratic political leadership - Executive power - Religion and politics - The Union and the role of the state The book's thirty-three contributors include such respected Lincoln scholars and political commentators as Harry V. Jaffa, Stephen B. Oates, Mark E. Neely, Richard C. Current, Herman Belz, and Frank J. Williams. With an introduction by Kenneth L. Deutsch and Joseph R. Fornieri, "Lincoln's American Dream" will be of enduring interest to scholars, students, teachers, and Lincoln aficionados alike and will attract interest in the fields of American history, leadership, religion and culture, American studies, and African-American studies.


The American Dream

The American Dream

Author: Dan Rather

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2002-05-07

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 006093770X

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At a time when we are once again talking and thinking about the meaning of America, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Dan Rather provides a powerful look at Americans who struggle to achieve their desires and ambitions. With the stories of ordinary men and women accomplishing the extraordinary, Rather demonstrates how the American dream brings us together and guides us, as it has for more than 200 years. For some, the American dream is simply to own a home or rise out of poverty. Some wish to serve God, country, or community. There are those who want to learn to read or run their own business. Still others simply wish to exercise fundamental American rights: to openly practice their religion and to speak what is in their minds and hearts. Stirring and provocative, The American Dream illustrates that the basic American desire for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is alive and well. It also confirms what our founding fathers always believed: that we are a country of visionaries, in ways big and small.