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American Dream

NPR Reviewed Jul 1, 2026 ✓ Reviewed by citations.press editors
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The book "The Good Life And Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement, 1945-1995" covers the period from 1945 to 1995.
1945 · book period start1995 · book period end
Robert Samuelson, author
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Daniel talks with Robert Samuelson, author of "The Good Life And Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement, 1945-1995" (Times Books). Samuelson says the current pessimism that many Americans feel is related to a post-World War Two optimism. He says we've turned the so-called "American Dream" into a fantasy of a Utopian Society in which there are no social or economic problems. But, he says, we cannot expect to solve our problems once and for all - that we'll always need to deal with them.

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