Brian Lear on WNYC

Now the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter, columnist and these days morning newsletter writer David Leinhart.

He has a new book called Hours Was the Shining Future,

the story of the American Dream.

It's just out today.

As usual with David Lianhart,

this both tells many people's stories,

and is also very data rich.

David was an economics reporter steeped in the numbers as well as the people and you can see it again in this book.

David, congratulations on the book.

Always good to have you on the show.

Welcome back to WNYC.

Thank you so much, Brian.

It's great to be on the show.

How old is the term the American dream?

And where did it come from?

So it is nearly a century old, and what I find most striking about it is that it dates from the

Great Depression. So there is a book in 1931 called The Epic of America by

a historian named James Trueslow Adams who won the Pulitzer Prize for his first book.

But this was the best-selling book he wrote and it's really remarkable to think about the fact that in the

midst of the Great Depression, 1931, so he's writing it in 19 in the country's greatest contribution to world fought and he defines the American dream

is the notion of a better richer happier life for all citizens of every rank and he

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