Routledge Handbook on the American Dream

<p>What do we mean by the American Dream? Can we define it? Or does any discussion of the phrase end inconclusively the solid turned liquid – like ice melting? Do we know whether the American Dream motivates and inspires or alternately obscures and deceives? <em>The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream</em> offers distinctive authoritative original essays by well-known scholars that address the social economic historical philosophic legal and cultural dimensions of the American Dream for the twenty-first century. The American Dream first discussed and defined in print by James Truslow Adams' <em>The Epic of America</em> (1931) has become nearly synonymous with being American. Adams’ definition although known to scholars is often lost in our ubiquitous use of the term. When used today the iconic phrase seems to encapsulate every fashion fad trend association or image the user identifies with the United States or American life. The American Dream’s ubiquity though argues eloquently for a deeper under-standing of its heritage its implications and its impact—to be found in this first research handbook ever published on the topic.</p>