American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare

In this definitive work, two-time Pulitzer finalist Jason DeParle, author of A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves, cuts between the mean streets of Milwaukee and the corridors of Washington to produce a masterpiece of literary journalism. At the heart of the story are three cousins whose different lives follow similar trajectories. Leaving welfare, Angie puts her heart in her work. Jewell bets on an imprisoned man. Opal guards a tragic secret that threatens her kids and her life. DeParle traces their family history back six generations to slavery and weaves poor people, politicians, reformers, and rogues into a spellbinding epic.

With a vivid sense of humanity, DeParle demonstrates that although we live in a country where anyone can make it, generation after generation some families don't. To read American Dream is to understand why.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 08/30/2005
ISBN: 9780143034377
Pages: 432
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.52w x 0.91d

Review Citations: Ingram Advance 09/01/2005 pg. 126
New York Review of Books 12/15/2005 pg. 76