The American Dream and Dreams Deferred: A Dialectical Fairy Tale

The American Dream and Dreams Deferred: A Dialectical Fairy Tale shows how rival interpretations of the American Dream poignantly express conflict over its very meaning, revealing the dialectical tensions within. Exploring often neglected voices, literatures, and histories, Thomas E. Reifer and Carlton D. Floyd highlight moments when the American Dream alternately appears possible, when it seems out of reach, and when it seems both possible and out of reach, paying particular attention to these dialectically entwined moments. The authors present a synthesis of the American Dream, their deferment, and its costs, projecting alternative futures, simultaneously informed by the dystopian remembrance of sufferings, past and present. In so doing, the authors invite readers to make a new collective dream of a better future, on a socially just, multicultural, and ecologically sustainable social foundation, into a living reality.