| In the gonzo tradition of Hunter S. Thompson, social chameleon Harmon Leon takes us on a journey into the savage heart of the American Dream, asking what it means to be an American in the twenty-first century.America was created by immigrants who arrived in search of a better life: From John Winthrop's "City upon a Hill" to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of racial equality, how one achieved the American Dream was dependant upon each individual's definition of that dream.In "The American Dream", Harmon Leon draws upon his experiences of adopting personas and disguises to infiltrate the various institutions of everyday life. In the past he has infiltrated the Scientology Celebrity Centre in LA, and posed as an aspiring member of a white-supremacist-hate-group in a rural Applebee's. For this book he lived among a diverse range of subcultures, learning first hand of their vision and utopia. These communities include: residing in a Hippie commune in Northern California and working as a marijuana farmer; becoming a circus carnie in rural Indiana; visiting a tourist attraction in Mexico that allows people to simulate illegally crossing the border to the American Dream; venturing to Hollywood while trying to climb the ranks in the star-making machine; and working in the strawberries fields of California with newly arrived immigrants. |
商品评论(0条)