Our Kids The American Dream in Crisis [Paperback]

ANew York Timesbestseller and “a passionate, urgent” (The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author ofBowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility.

Central to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap” emerge. We Americans have always believed that those who have talent and try hard will succeed, but this central tenet of the American Dream seems no longer true or at the least, much less true than it was.

InOur Kids, Robert Putnam offers a personal and authoritative look at this new American crisis, beginning with the example of his high school class of 1959 in Port Clinton, Ohio. The vast majority of those students went on to lives better than those of their parents. But their children and grandchildren have faced diminishing prospects. Putnam tells the tale of lessening opportunity through poignant life stories of rich, middle class, and poor kids from cities and suburbs across the country, brilliantly blended with the latest social-science research.

“A truly masterful volume” (Financial Times),Our Kidsprovides a disturbing account of the American dream that is “thoughtful and persuasive” (The Economist).Our Kidsoffers a rare combination of individual testimony and rigorous evidence: “No one can finish this book and feel complacent about equal opportunity” (The New York Times Book Review).Our Kids

Chapter 1

THE AMERICAN DREAM: MYTHS AND REALITIES

I went back to Ohio, but my city was gone.1

If I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities lÓ