Declining Fortunes: The Withering of the American Dream, 1989-1990

This was a study about the Baby Boom generation in pursuit of "the American dream." The study was focused on the experiences of sixty men and women who graduated from high school in 1970 and 1980 from one typical, suburban, northern New Jersey town. Over the course of two years, the graduates, their parents, high school teachers and guidance counselors were interviewed, for a total of 150 respondents. Participants came from a variety of economic and religious backgrounds, and were predominantly white with college educations. They spoke about downward mobility, job loss, divorce, single parenthood and family structure, also giving outlines of their life stories. Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 178 audio files available.