There is no better way to understand America than by understanding the cultural history of the American Dream. Tracing the history of the phrase in popular culture, Larry Samuel gives readers a field guide in The American Dream: A Cultural History (Syracuse Univ, $24.95) to the evolution of our national identity over the last eighty years. Relying mainly on period magazines and newspapers as his primary source material, the author demonstrates that journalists serving on the front lines of the scene represent our most valuable resource to recover unfiltered stories of the Dream. The problem, Samuel reveals, is that it does not exist; the Dream is just that, a product of our imagination. That it is not real ultimately turns out to be the most significant finding and what makes the story most compelling.