The American Dream and the Popular Novel

This title, originally published in 1985, examines conceptions of success and the good life expressed in bestselling novels ¿ ranging from historical sagas and spy thrillers to more serious works by Updike, Bellows, Steinbeck and Mailer ¿ published from 1945 to 1975. Using these popular books as cultural evidence, Elizabeth Long argues that the meaning of the American dream has changed dramatically, but in a more complex fashion than has been recognised by that country¿s most prominent social critics.