A concise, nuanced investigation of contesting definitions of the American dream.
A professor examines the thematic use of the American dream in speeches, books, and film.
When it was first released in 1946, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life was labeled by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI as “Communist propaganda” due to its depiction of the greedy, coldhearted slumlord and banker Henry Potter. In the 1980s, the memorably wholesome film was described by one critic as the “perfect film for the Reagan era.” This paradoxical interpretation of It’s a Wonderful Life, argues author Shaviro, represents competing definitions of the American dream, in particular the historic conflict between market meritocracy versus egalitarianism. Analyzing the rhetoric of high-profile U.S. politicians and ideologues, works of literature, and films, Shaviro explores these rival meanings of the American dream. Egalitarianism, he notes, focuses not just on equal opportunities, but on “ex post economic outcomes,” while the meritocratic view assumes that “winners and losers are not equal after all” and that, ultimately, the more deserving rich “owe the poor nothing.” A professor of taxation at NYU Law School whose previous publications have centered on literature and inequality, Shaviro has a firm command over both U.S. economic policy and pop culture, and his analysis of the contested American dream explores a diverse raft of books, from The Great Gatsby (1925) to Atlas Shrugged (1957), and films, from The Searchers (1956) to The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). The book also includes a sophisticated analysis of the ways in which “White solidarity has frequently proved powerful enough to outweigh economic and class concerns,” as evidenced in American books and films as well as in the speeches of politicians like Donald Trump. It concludes with a convincing, if pessimistic, assessment of 21st-century racism, economic inequality, and conservative backlash. Backed by an impressive bibliography, this is a well-researched book that carefully balances a scholarly writing style with engaging anecdotes from popular movies and books. Its efforts at making academic writing more accessible are bolstered by its brevity.
A concise, nuanced investigation of contesting definitions of the American dream.Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 9781839983825
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Anthem Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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