“In the great halls of Costco, two of our greatest fears are assuaged — that of not having enough, and that of not being enough.”
American Dream
Posted inBooks, Culture, Feature, History, Profiles & Interviews, Story
The Precarity of Everything: On Millennial (Blacks and) Blues
Reniqua Allen — the author of It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America — on Black millennials, millennial burnout, and hope in a time of uncertainty.
Posted inCurrent Events, Essays & Criticism, Quotes
What If the Price of the American Dream Is Too High?
In a blistering essay, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio eviscerates an American Dream that lures migrants with the promise of opportunity, then forces them to live under constant threat.
Posted inArts & Culture, Nonfiction, Quotes
What We’re Not Talking About When We Talk About Tiny House Hunters
Big economic anxieties, writ small.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Spelling Skills and the Meaning of the American Dream
In 1931, the historian James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream as “a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable.” His book, The Epic of America, may have popularized the term, but the dream dates back at least to […]
Posted inUncategorized
A pool salesman struggles to cope with a weak economy, which has forced him to rethink the meaning of the American Dream: ‘You can’t be too safe or too smart about money with the economy now,’ Tyler said. ‘I want to save up and make the smart investments.’ ‘You’ll make them,’ Frank said, nodding. ‘I […]
Posted inUncategorized
On the history of the American Dream, and how it stands in the U.S. today: The government’s verdict: ‘It is more difficult now than in the past for many people to achieve middle-class status because prices for certain key goods — health care, college and housing — have gone up faster than income.’ Median household […]