Facing up to the American dream : race, class, and the soul of the nation / Jennifer L. Hochschild.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hochschild, Jennifer L., 1950-

Series:

Princeton studies in American politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Race relations.

United States.

Race relations.

African Americans--Social conditions--1975-.

African Americans.

African Americans--Social conditions.

African Americans--Economic conditions.

Social classes--United States.

Social classes.

Physical Description:

xxvi, 412 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First paperback printing, with corrections and a new preface.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1996]

Summary:

Hochschild combines survey data and vivid anecdote to clarify several paradoxes. Since the 1960s, white Americans have seen African Americans as having better and better chances to achieve the dream. At the same time middle-class blacks, by now one-third of the African American population, have become increasingly frustrated personally and anxious about the progress of their race. Most poor blacks, however, cling with astonishing strength to the notion that they and their families can succeeddespite their terrible, perhaps worsening, living conditions. Meanwhile, a tiny number of the estranged poor, who have completely given up on the American dream or any other faith, threaten the social fabric of the black community and the very lives of their fellow blacks. Will the still optimistic majority of poor African Americans eventually follow the alienated minority into neighborhood and even society-wide destruction? Does the new black middle class vindicate the American dream, or does the frustration of its members make apparent the limits of a vision never intended to include African Americans? Hochschild probes these questions, and gives them historical depth by comparing the experience of today's African Americans to that of white ethnic immigrants at the turn of the century. She concludes by claiming that America's only alternative to the social disaster of intensified racial conflict lies in the inclusiveness, optimism, discipline, and high-mindedness of the American dream at its best.

Contents:

What is the American dream?

Rich and poor African Americans

"What's all the fuss about?": Blacks' and Whites' beliefs about the American dream

"Succeeding more" and "under the spell": affluent and poor Blacks' beleifs about the American dream

Beliefs about one's own life

Beliefs about others

Competitive success and collective well-being

Remaining under the spell

With one part of themselves they actually believe

Distorting the dream

Breaking the spell

The perversity of race and fluidity of values

Comparing Blacks and White immigrants

The future of the American dream.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [341]-397) and index.

Local Notes:

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Sheldon Hackney.

ISBN:

0691029202

9780691029207

0691029571

9780691029573

OCLC:

35867821