The 20 Something American Dream: A Cross-Country Quest for a Generation - Hardcover

Cohen, Michael Lee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525936858 ISBN 13: 9780525936855

Publisher: Dutton, 1993

Synopsis

Interviews with a cross-section of men and women in their twenties--including an investment banker bent on gaining wealth, a former L.A. gang member now jobless, and a squatter in a tenement--reveal their aspirations and disappointments.

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Reviews

Seeking to discover what the concept of the American dream means to his generation, Cohen, a 28-year-old attorney, interviewed 50 men and women in their 20s. In a cross-country journey of nine months, Cohen spoke with Americans from diverse locales, ethnic backgrounds, occupations and sexual identification (more than 50% were college-educated). He concludes that most of them do believe it will be possible to have a middle-class suburban home and a nuclear family, but are also fearful that a declining economy will significantly postpone the realization of this dream. He sympathizes with those who endure racism and poverty while lamenting that this generation "sees the challenges but has no clear vision of how to overcome them." Reliance on strictly anecdotal data causes the account to be intriguing but inconclusive. The project was financed by Harvard University.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The group of Americans sometimes known as the ``Brady Bunch generation'' comes of age--to find that the real world little resembles the idealized version shown on TV. Investigating young adults' concept of the American Dream, Cohen, a 28-year-old Harvard Law graduate, traveled across the US, interviewing 161 of the nation's 40 million-plus individuals in their 20s. He chose to focus on the American Dream because of all the media predictions that twentysomethings won't be able to achieve it--and because the ``American Dream is a Rorschach test for our individual and national psyches, a blank screen onto which we project our personal and collective hopes and aspirations.'' But though he spoke with an impressive cross-section of society--from married couples living on military bases to a homeless man begging on the streets--and included people of various races and religions, Cohen fails to provide conclusions of any real impact. He finds that younger adults want more material comforts, to live as Mike and Carol Brady did, and to be financially stable and secure--not exactly a revelation, admits the author: ``Who doesn't want such a life?'' Similarly, his conclusion that twentysomethings are disillusioned with government is hardly news, and his comments on the increasing statelessness of corporations and subsequent decrease in company loyalty could ring true for any other generation. In any case, Cohen's answer to all this dissatisfaction isn't--as many of his interviewees seem to want--to find a hero, but to find a purpose in life. More interesting for its sampling of viewpoints than for its conclusions as an attempted forecast of the American future. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525936858
• ISBN 13: 9780525936855
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320