Routledge Handbook on the American Dream

The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream: Volume 3 explores the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the American Dream in both theory and reality in the twenty-first century. This collection of essays brings together leading scholars from a range of fields to further develop the themes and issues explored in the previous two volumes.

The concept of the American Dream, first expounded by James Truslow Adams in The Epic of America in 1931, is at once both ubiquitous and difficult to define. The term perfectly captures the hopes of freedom, opportunity, and upward social mobility invested in the nation. However, the American Dream appears increasingly illusory in the face of widening inequality and apparent lack of opportunity, particularly for the poor and ethnic, or otherwise marginalized, minorities in the United States. As such, an understanding of the American Dream through both theoretical analyses and empirical studies, whether qualitative or quantitative, is crucial to understanding contemporary America.

Like the previous volumes of The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream, this collection will be of great interest to students and researchers in a range of fields in the humanities and social sciences.

Robert C. Hauhart is a Professor at Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, Washington, USA. He has written or edited twelve books including The Lonely Quest (2018), Seeking the American Dream (2016), Designing and Teaching Undergraduate Capstone Courses (2015), and the first two volumes of The Routledge Handbook on the American Dream. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Research Center for the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2019.

Mitja Sardoč is Senior Research Associate at the Educational Research Institute, where he is Head of Centre for the Philosophy of Education, and researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He is editor of numerous books and reference works including the Handbook of Patriotism, The Impacts of Neoliberal Discourse and Language in Education, The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration, Handbook of Equality of Opportunity, and Talents and Distributive Justice. He is Managing Editor of Theory and Research in Education.

Tomaž Deželan is Professor of Political Science at the University of Ljubljana and American Studies doctoral study coordinator. He holds the Jean Monnet Chair for Civic Education and has acted as advisor for the fields of higher education, citizenship, and youth to many international organizations (e.g. OSCE, IDEA, Council of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament), governments, and private initiatives. He has coordinated many European research projects and published widely.