Routledge Handbook on the American Dream

<p><em>The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream: Volume 2</em> 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.</p><p>The concept of the American Dream first expounded by James Truslow Adams in <i>The Epic of America</i> 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. </p><p>Like the first volume of <i>The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream</i> this collection will be of great interest to students and researchers in a range of fields in the humanities and social sciences.</p>