Description: An examination of extraordinary uses and abuses of an American ideal during a time of perceived prosperity
Brief description: Claire Goldstene has taught United States history at the University of Maryland, the University of North Florida, and American University. Her work has been published in numerous journals including Thought and Action, Journal of Third-World Studies, and Southern Historian, among others.
Review Quotes: The Struggle for America's Promise provides an excellent overview of the main strands of thought which pursued the achievement of 'equal opportunity' during the Gilded Age. It brings together the intellectual contributions of a number of key figures within the social and economic context of the Gilded Age, with its tragic and disruptive inequalities. Goldstene portrays individuals and movements struggling to 'make sense' of an economy which no longer 'made sense' by older ways of thought. Scholars in the fields of labor history, American studies, intellectual history, and US social and economic history will all find food for thought here.--Ilene A. DeVault, Cornell University