THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

Brisk polemic exposing the 40-year conservative campaign against the social contract.

Progressive radio host and self-identified “Boomer” Hartmann takes aim at the “Reagan Revolution,” arguing that since the 1980s, gains in the stability and social infrastructure around a growing middle class were intentionally reversed. He notes sharp distinctions between his own working-class upbringing and the paucity of opportunities facing young people today, directly due to Republican gaming of the system. He argues, “They’ve been trying to undo or reverse FDR’s New Deal ever since it was put into place in the 1930s,” while tartly predicting that younger generations are finally “waking up from the fog of BS Republicans have been crop-dusting over us since 1981.” Such occasional venting comes linked to facts: “When Reagan came into office, for example, a bit over 60 percent of all income in the United States went to middle class families; by 2020 that number had collapsed to 42 percent. Meanwhile, the income of the top 10 percent of Americans went from 29 percent in 1981 to over 50 percent today.” Punchy chapters move through subtopics including the rise of student debt, the affordable housing crisis, Americans’ medical debt burden, and more—establishing for each a narrative of fundamental protections being rolled away following the 1980s. Current activism leads to a guardedly optimistic conclusion: “The zoomers may be able to lead a rebirth of the American Dream—if enough of us from all generations get involved.” Hartmann marshals evidence well to support his sometimes heated assertions and concludes each chapter with progressive proposals to address the damage he charts, always emphasizing, “It’s going to take major and radical action to stop and then reverse the Reagan Revolution.”

Accessible primer on the roots of today’s pro-billionaire pseudo-populism.