American Dreaming: Learning to Live Without

Here's an interesting article about how people are changing their lives and expectations. Does any of this sound like something you've done, or that others you know have done?

American Dreaming: The New American Dream

I found an interesting website for an organization called The New American Dream, which emphasizes a more sustainable lifestyle. Check it out here. Tell me what you think about it in the comments.

American Dreaming: 1931 article about James Truslow Adams

The Milwaukee Journal covered the publication of James Truslow Adams' book which coined the term The American Dream. You can read the article from 1931 here.

American Dreaming: Frank Capra

Here's a review of the Capra film we watched.

American Dreaming: Library of Congress Resources

The Library of Congress has some interesting online resources about The American Dream. Go over and take a look!

America Dreams Through The Decades

American Dreaming: German students look at the topic

As part of my research to present this course, I encountered a number of websites created by students. Here's one put together by some in the Westphalia region of Germany. Take a look and see what you think.

The American Dream

American Dreaming: Hungry Planet

Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
© Peter Menzel www.menzelphoto.com from the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

I've also seen another exhibit of Menzel's photographs relating to a comparison of international standards of living. It's entitled Hungry Planet. Here's how his website describes it:

30 Families, 24 Countries, 600 Meals One Extraordinary Book

In Hungry Planet, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio present a photographic study of families from around the world, revealing what people eat during the course of one week. Each family's profile includes a detailed description of their weekly food purchases; photographs of the family at home, at market, and in their community; and a portrait of the entire family surrounded by a week's worth of groceries. To assemble this remarkable comparison, Menzel and D'Aluisio traveled to twenty-four countries and visited thirty families from Bhutan and Bosnia to Mexico and Mongolia. Accompanied by an insightful foreword by Marion Nestle, and provocative essays from Alfred W. Crosby, Francine R. Kaufman, Corby Kummer, Charles C. Mann, Michael Pollan, and Carl Safina, the result of this journey is a 30-course documentary feast: captivating, infuriating, and altogether fascinating.

Michelle Norris of NPR's All Things Considered reports on it here.

Time Magazine offers a slideshow of some of the images. Part 1 is here; 2 is here.