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Full Description
Explores the decades-long erosion of the American Dream from the author's perspective: a working-class kid who became a celebrated economist dedicated to advancing the interests of struggling workers, only to get caught in the same currents of job insecurity and downward mobility as the people he aimed to defend.
Worker insecurity, increasing inequality, and downward mobility in our current era contrast sharply with expanding prosperity and opportunity in the first three decades after World War II. What happened? And what can we do to revitalize the American Dream, reduce worker precarity, and foster broadly shared prosperity?
In this historical account of a protracted and expanding national crisis, intertwined with a personal story about growing up in a work-obsessed family and pursuing a career devoted to addressing that crisis, Charles J. Whalen grapples with the social forces that sever the link between hard work and employment success. He exposes the obstacles that mar the path of many people seeking job opportunities and traces the fading of the American Dream, ultimately encouraging readers to take a fresh look at the current economic situation and championing a more constructive set of public policies to shape the future.
Contents
Preface
Prologue: The American Dream in 100 Boxes
BOOK I. MOONSHOT AND HARD LANDING
PART ONE: WORKING-CLASS ORIGINS
1. Confident, Optimistic and Tenacious
2. Work—and the Lure of Public Service
3. "Who the Hell Do You Think You Are?"
PART TWO: ITHACA
4. Seeking Practical Solutions in an Age of Limits
5. Studying Work
6. Cornell through a Wider Lens
PART THREE: AUSTIN
7. The Making of a Maverick Economist
8. Texas People and Politics
9. Early Accomplishments, But Limited Options
10. A City and Nation Transformed
PART FOUR: COLLEGES OF THE SENECA
11. Real-World Economics
12. The Six-Year Search—Including a Huge Near Miss
13. Perseverance and Accomplishments Are Not Enough
PART FIVE: HUDSON VALLEY
14. Budget Sideshows and the Silent Depression
15. End of the Line
BOOK II. FROM THE FACTORY FLOOR TO THE NATION'S CAPITAL
PART SIX: BUFFALO AND GUANGZHOU
16. Saving Good Jobs and Creating New Ones in the Face of Globalization
17. "The Future Will Be Chinese"
18. Union Engagement in Regional Development
PART SEVEN: NEW YORK CITY
19. Viewing the Economy from the 43rd Floor
20. "This is Terrorism"
PART EIGHT: BACK TO THE FINGER LAKES
21. Picking Up the Pieces
22. Perspectives on Work
23. The Future of Retirement
24. Recharged and Reengaged
PART NINE: MOHAWK VALLEY
25. Utica College
26. "We're All Minskyites Now"
27. Moment of Truth
PART TEN: WASHINGTON, DC
28. In the Shadow of the Capitol
29. The Other DC
30. The Personal and the Political
Epilogue: Continuing the Fight amid Multiple Crises
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
