"African American homebuyers continue to pay more for and get less from homeownership. This book explains how fervent adherence to the American Dream amongst working-class African Americans makes them vulnerable in a structurally racist housing market."

"Nearly one hundred years after the Great Depression, Dorothea Lange's indelible photographs remain vivid in our collective memory as the face of unemployment. Her portraits showed down and out men waiting in breadlines and the desperation of families living through the trauma of job loss....

The Declaration of Independence states that all people are endowed with certain unalienable rights, and that among these is the pursuit of happiness. But is happiness available equally to everyone in America today? How about elsewhere in the world? Carol Graham draws on cutting edge research...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Tables -- Preface -- 1 Introduction -- 2 What Happened to Horatio Alger? -- 3 Who Believes in the American Dream? -- 4 The High Costs of Being Poor in the Land of the Dream -- 5 Well-Being, Aspirations, and Outcomes -- 6 Can We Save the Dream? --...

Preface -- Introduction: of ruling classes and underclasses : the laws of social mobility -- Social mobility by time and place -- Sweden : mobility achieved? -- The United States : land of opportunity -- Medieval England : mobility in the feudal age -- Modern England : the deep roots of the...