Find out who stole the American Dream

Our nonfiction book for August is "Who Stole the American Dream" by veteran reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith. This book discusses what led up to and has happened since the "Great Recession," and what effect it's had on the dreams of ordinary Americans. Especially eye-opening is his coverage of the corporate practice of "offshoring" and "onshoring" and the role of H-1B visas in eliminating jobs for Americans. The publisher's blurb states that the books is ” an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America..... Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth."

The Orange County library has 5 copies of this book -- and they're all checked out as of July 29th -- so put your name on the list to check it out as soon as possible. Amazon book reviewers gave the book 4.6 out of 5 stars based on 176 reviews.

This is the non-fiction month of our meeting at Panera Bread. We also have meetings at a member's house that cover a topic rather than a single book. One of our past topics was the decline of the middle class, so the August selection supplements that theme.