This fascinating history set in the Reconstruction South is a testament to African-American resilience, fortitude, and independence. It tells of three attempts to create an ideal community on the river bottom lands at Davis Bend south of Vicksburg. There Joseph Davis's effort to establish a cooperative community among the slaves on his plantation was doomed to fail as long as they remained in bondage. During the Civil War the Yankees tried with limited success to organize the freedmen into a model community without trusting them to manage their own affairs. After the war the intrepid Benjamin Montgomery and his family bought the land from Davis and established a very prosperous colony of their fellow freedmen. Their success at Davis Bend occurred when blacks were accorded the opportunity to pursue the American dream relatively free from the discrimination that prevailed in most of society. It is a story worthy of celebration. Janet Hermann writes here of two men--Joseph Davis, the slaveholder and brother of the president of the Confederacy, and Benjamin Montgomery, an educated freedman. In 1866 Montgomery began the experiment at Davis Bend. The Pursuit of a Dream, published in 1981, received the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the McLemore Prize of the Mississippi Historical Society, and the Silver Medal of the Commonwealth Club of California. Historical writing at its best . . . her research is impressive and is presented in balanced, ironic prose. --David Bradley, New York Times Book Review. A marvelous story for all readers with a taste for the ironies, the ambiguities, and the surprises of history. --C. Vann Woodward. Janet Sharp Hermann, a freelance writer and historian, is the author of Joseph E. Davis: Pioneer Patriarch (University Press of Mississippi).

From the age of nine, Michael dreams of playing basketball for the United States in the Olympics, and with hard work and his mother's encouragement, he realizes his dream. Full color.

The United States has been epitomized as a land of opportunity, where hard work and skill can bring personal success and economic well-being. The American Dream has captured the imagination of people from all walks of life, and to many, it represents the heart and soul of the country. But there is another, darker side to the bargain that America strikes with its people -- it is the price we pay for our individual pursuit of the American Dream. That price can be found in the economic hardship present in the lives of millions of Americans. In Chasing the American Dream, leading social scientists Mark Robert Rank, Thomas A. Hirschl, and Kirk A. Foster provide a new and innovative look into a curious dynamic -- the tension between the promise of economic opportunities and rewards and the amount of turmoil that Americans encounter in their quest for those rewards. The authors explore questions such as: -What percentage of Americans achieve affluence, and how much income mobility do we actually have? -Are most Americans able to own a home, and at what age? -How is it that nearly 80 percent of us will experience significant economic insecurity at some point between ages 25 and 60? -How can access to the American Dream be increased? Combining personal interviews with dozens of Americans and a longitudinal study covering 40 years of income data, the authors tell the story of the American Dream and reveal a number of surprises. The risk of economic vulnerability has increased substantially over the past four decades, and the American Dream is becoming harder to reach and harder to keep. Yet for most Americans, the Dream lies not in wealth, but in economic security, pursuing one's passions, and looking toward the future. Chasing the American Dream provides us with a new understanding into the dynamics that shape our fortunes and a deeper insight into the importance of the American Dream for the future of the country.

Everyone deserves to make their dreams a reality. What dreams of yours have you deferred for too long? It’s all too common for our passions to fall by the wayside amongst the daily grind of ordinary living. Are you ready to take one step today toward answering your heart’s calling and fulfilling your destiny?In The Pursuit of Dreams, Dr. Dragos shares the deeply personal experience of how he accomplished his dreams—including traveling to the North and South Poles without any money or connections—to show how you can reclaim your power and take charge of your life by listening to the voice of Truth. Travel the world with Dr. Dragos, go behind the scenes in Silicon Valley and NASA headquarters, and meet an eclectic cast of characters, including a Buddhist teacher, an Army veteran, a monk from Transylvania, an innovator at Google, and a NASA legend. Their fascinating conversations connect science, spirituality, and entrepreneurship to inspire and empower you to realize your dreams.

In each of the last fifteen years Bob Dotson has traveled more than one hundred thousand miles, to all the forgotten corners of America, looking for the extraordinary in the ordinary lives of people "in pursuit of the American dream." Now, for the first time, his highly acclaimed television reports have been collected in print, to be read by his fans and discovered by a whole new audience.

The bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed goes back undercover to do for America's ailing middle class what she did for the working poor Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed explored the lives of low-wage workers. Now, in Bait and Switch, she enters another hidden realm of the economy: the shadowy world of the white-collar unemployed. Armed with a plausible résumé of a professional "in transition," she attempts to land a middle-class job—undergoing career coaching and personality testing, then trawling a series of EST-like boot camps, job fairs, networking events, and evangelical job-search ministries. She gets an image makeover, works to project a winning attitude, yet is proselytized, scammed, lectured, and—again and again—rejected. Bait and Switch highlights the people who've done everything right—gotten college degrees, developed marketable skills, and built up impressive résumés—yet have become repeatedly vulnerable to financial disaster, and not simply due to the vagaries of the business cycle. Today's ultra-lean corporations take pride in shedding their "surplus" employees—plunging them, for months or years at a stretch, into the twilight zone of white-collar unemployment, where job searching becomes a full-time job in itself. As Ehrenreich discovers, there are few social supports for these newly disposable workers—and little security even for those who have jobs. Like the now classic Nickel and Dimed, Bait and Switch is alternately hilarious and tragic, a searing exposé of economic cruelty where we least expect it.

Tracing the unforgettable tale of a little black girl from a small Ohio town who dared to dream above her station, this memoir captures the larger history of black people in America, from the arrival of Ellamae Simmons' ancestors aboard a slaving vessel in 1775, to the electrifying election of the nation's first African American president. Ellamae came of age at a time when even the most gifted Negro girls were expected to become domestics in white homes. But Ellamae yearned to study medicine, and she set about creating a world in which she could do just that. For most of her 97 years, she has been writing her story of struggle and triumph against the odds, refusing to let disappointment or heartbreak turn her aside. Delving into themes of inclusion and social justice, education and mental health, marriage and family, this is the story of a woman who wasn't content to just witness history, she went out and made her own.

Winners of 8 national championships, Indiana University is to men’s college soccer what University of North Carolina is to college basketball or University of Notre Dame is to college football. To Chase a Dream is the true story of one kid’s near-impossible desire to play soccer at that national powerhouse, a kid who was told time after time that he simply wasn’t good enough and never would be. What all the doubters failed to consider was that inside the body of an under-sized, humble Paul Kapsalis was the heart of a lion. This is his journey, a story that affirms that perseverance, optimism, hard work, a willingness to learn, and kindness can lead to remarkable achievements and transform a kid who just wanted to play soccer into a leader of men. It took him 5 years, fighting through rejection and a career-threatening injury, but Paul got where he never expected to go. Here’s a chance to see how he did it.

A history of the American GI Forum, a civil rights group formed by Hispanic servicemen and women in response to the intolerable conditions they found in their communities upon their return from World War II; covering the years between 1948 and 1983.

This heartwarming picture book, written by the superstar's mother and sister, teaches that hard work and determination are much more important in becoming a champion.