Projecting the End of the American Dream

Projecting the End of the American Dream PDF Author: Gordon B. Arnold
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313385645
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This provocative book reveals how Hollywood films reflect our deepest fears and anxieties as a country, often recording our political beliefs and cultural conditions while underscoring the darker side of the American way of life. Long before the war in Iraq and the economic crises of the early 21st century, Hollywood has depicted a grim view of life in the United States, one that belies the prosperity and abundance of the so-called American Dream. While the country emerged from World War II as a world power, collectively our sense of security had been threatened. The result is a cinematic body of work that has America's decline and ruin as a central theme. The author draws from popular films across all genres and six decades to illustrate how the political climate of the times influenced their creation. Projecting the End of the American Dream: Hollywood's Visions of U.S. Decline combines film history, social history, and political history to reveal important themes in the unfolding American narrative. Discussions focus on a wide variety of films, including Rambo, Planet of the Apes, and Easy Rider.

Projecting the End of the American Dream

Projecting the End of the American Dream PDF Author: Gordon B. Arnold
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313385645
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
This provocative book reveals how Hollywood films reflect our deepest fears and anxieties as a country, often recording our political beliefs and cultural conditions while underscoring the darker side of the American way of life. Long before the war in Iraq and the economic crises of the early 21st century, Hollywood has depicted a grim view of life in the United States, one that belies the prosperity and abundance of the so-called American Dream. While the country emerged from World War II as a world power, collectively our sense of security had been threatened. The result is a cinematic body of work that has America's decline and ruin as a central theme. The author draws from popular films across all genres and six decades to illustrate how the political climate of the times influenced their creation. Projecting the End of the American Dream: Hollywood's Visions of U.S. Decline combines film history, social history, and political history to reveal important themes in the unfolding American narrative. Discussions focus on a wide variety of films, including Rambo, Planet of the Apes, and Easy Rider.

What We Mean by the American Dream

What We Mean by the American Dream PDF Author: Doron Taussig
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150175470X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Doron Taussig invites us to question the American Dream. Did you earn what you have? Did everyone else? The American Dream is built on the idea that Americans end up roughly where we deserve to be in our working lives based on our efforts and abilities; in other words, the United States is supposed to be a meritocracy. When Americans think and talk about our lives, we grapple with this idea, asking how a person got to where he or she is and whether he or she earned it. In What We Mean by the American Dream, Taussig tries to find out how we answer those questions. Weaving together interviews with Americans from many walks of life—as well as stories told in the US media about prominent figures from politics, sports, and business—What We Mean by the American Dream investigates how we think about whether an individual deserves an opportunity, job, termination, paycheck, or fortune. Taussig looks into the fabric of American life to explore how various people, including dairy farmers, police officers, dancers, teachers, computer technicians, students, store clerks, the unemployed, homemakers, and even drug dealers got to where they are today and whether they earned it or not. Taussig's frank assessment of the state of the US workforce and its dreams allows him to truly and meaningfully ask the question that underpins so many of our political debates and personal frustrations: Did you earn it? By doing so, he sheds new light on what we mean by—and how we can deliver on—the American Dream of today.

The End of the Suburbs

The End of the Suburbs PDF Author: Leigh Gallagher
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591846978
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Originally published in hardcover in 2013.

Film Comedy and the American Dream

Film Comedy and the American Dream PDF Author: Zach Sands
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135160029X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Film Comedy and the American Dream is an examination of national identity in the era of the American superpower as projected in popular comedic films that center on issues of upward mobility. It is the story of what made audiences laugh and why, and what this says about the changing shape of the American Dream from the end of the Second World War through the first part of the twenty-first century. Through a combination of narrative and thematic analyses of popular comedic films, contextualized within a dynamic historical framework, the book traces the increasing disillusionment with this central ideology in the face of multiple forms of systemic exclusion. It argues that film comedy is a major component of the discourse surrounding the American Dream because these movies often evoke humor by highlighting the incongruities that exist between the ideals that define this nation versus the actual lived experiences of its citizens.

Stakes Is High

Stakes Is High PDF Author: Mychal Denzel Smith
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1568588720
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Brave, clear-eyed, and passionate, Stakes Is High is the book we need to guide us past crisis mode and through an uncertain future. The events of the past decade have forced us to reckon with who we are and who we want to be. We have been invested in a set of beliefs about our American identity: our exceptionalism, the inevitable rightness of our path, the promise that hard work and determination will carry us to freedom. But in Stakes Is High, Mychal Denzel Smith confronts the shortcomings of these stories -- and with the American Dream itself -- and calls on us to live up to the principles we profess but fail to realize. In a series of incisive essays, Smith exposes the stark contradictions at the heart of American life, holding all of us, individually and as a nation, to account. We've gotten used to looking away, but the fissures and casual violence of institutional oppression are ever-present. There is a future that is not as grim as our past. In this profound work, Smith helps us envision it with care, honesty, and imagination.

Who Stole the American Dream?

Who Stole the American Dream? PDF Author: Hedrick Smith
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812982053
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 626

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Book Description
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

Ending Poverty in America

Ending Poverty in America PDF Author: John Edwards
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
A collection of original essays designed to put the issue of poverty back on the political map in the US, offering a plan to eliminate poverty in 30 years. With contributions on job creation, schools, housing, rural and family life, this forward-thinking selection brings together liberals and conservatives to address one of the great moral and societal issues of modern life.

Joy, Inc.

Joy, Inc. PDF Author: Richard Sheridan
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591847125
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“A guidebook for how leaders can motivate, engage, and recognize their people all the while growing the business profitably.” —Forbes.com Every year, thousands of visitors come from around the world to visit Menlo Innovations, a small software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They make the trek not to learn about technology but to witness a radically different approach to company culture. CEO Rich Sheridan removed the fear and ambiguity that typically make a workplace miserable. With joy as the explicit goal, he and his team changed everything about how the company was run. The results blew away all expectations. Menlo has won numerous growth awards and was named an Inc. magazine “audacious small company.” Joy, Inc. offers an inside look at how Menlo created its culture, and shows how any organization can follow their methods for a more passionate team and sustainable, profitable results.

Project America

Project America PDF Author: Marshall Elijah Hatch
Publisher: Life To Legacy LLC
ISBN: 0984797327
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
PROJECT AMERICA: Memoirs of Faith and Hope to Win the Future, is one of the most impactful and relevant literary works of our time. The author, Dr. Marshall E. Hatch, sheds light on the timeless maxim that "each generation must chart its own course." In looking back to Dr. King's global vision, he conscientiously looks forward to summon the probing question "Where do we go from here?" Project America offers a nostalgic yet visionary memoir that weaves together scenes from the author's personal journey with historical analysis and commentaries to address contemporary public policy issues. In his expansive, thoughtful, and powerful treatise, Dr. Hatch presents us with the challenge to move forward, beyond the sins of America's shameful history of slavery to a "symphony" for winning the future. In this literary treasure-trove, Hatch's four symphonic movements unfold as the pathway to fulfilling the American promise, including a massive investment in education, adapting to the changing complexion of world power, embracing environmental stewardship, and renewing our faith to reengage the social covenant with the American people. Through Project America, we reflect upon Chicago's and the nation's past. While learning from Hatch's insights, we are encouraged to draw from the wellsprings of our faiths and to act purposefully together to achieve "a brand new world." Project America is truly within our grasp; therefore, let us heed Dr. Hatch's clarion call to make a brighter future start happening now.

The New Better Off

The New Better Off PDF Author: Courtney E. Martin
Publisher: Seal Press
ISBN: 158005580X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Are we living the good life—and what defines 'good', anyway? Americans today are constructing a completely different framework for success than their parents' generation, using new metrics that TEDWomen speaker and columnist Courtney Martin has termed collectively the "New Better Off". The New Better Offputs a name to the American phenomenon of rejecting the traditional dream of a 9-to-5 job, home ownership, and a nuclear family structure, illuminating the alternate ways Americans are seeking happiness and success. Including commentary on recent changes in how we view work, customs and community, marriage, rituals, money, living arrangements, and spirituality, The New Better Off uses personal stories and social analysis to explore the trends shaping our country today. Martin covers growing topics such as freelancing, collaborative consumption, communal living, and the breaking down of gender roles. The New Better Offis about the creative choices individuals are making in their vocational and personal lives, but it's also about the movements, formal and informal, that are coalescing around the "New Better Off" idea-people who are reinventing the social safety net and figuring out how to truly better their own communities.