Full Description
Could the promise of upward mobility have a dark side? In Tensions in the American Dream, Melanie and Roderick Bush ask, how does a "nation of immigrants" pledge inclusion, yet marginalize so many citizens based on race, class, and gender? The authors consider the origins and development of the U.S. nation and empire; the founding principles of belonging, nationalism, and exceptionalism; and their lived reality.
Tensions in the American Dream also addresses the relevancy of nation to empire in the context of the historical world capitalist system. The authors ask, is the American Dream a reality only questioned by those unwilling or unable to achieve it? What is the "good life" and how is it particularly "American"?
Contents
List of Tables
Preface
PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Key Questions and Concepts
2. Citizenship and Nation
3. The Shifting Terrain Makes Clear the Tensions in the American Dream
PART II. STORIES OF MY AMERICA
4. Reflections on the Structural Logic of the System
5. Thoughts on the Current Juncture
6. Perspectives on the American Dream
7. Expressions of Revolt against the Systems
PART III. TENSIONS IN THE AMERICAN DREAM: RHETORIC, REVERIE, OR REALITY?
8. Nation: Empire or Liberation
9. Racial Nationalism and the Multiple Crises of the U.S. Nation
10. Going Forward, with Reflections on the Revolts of the Past Decade
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
