Something For Nothing

The Protestant ethic of perseverance, industry, and disciplined achievement is what made America great - or so conventional wisdom would have it. But, if this culture of merit and control is the American way, then how do you explain that whole other America - the one that pours billions of dollars into casinos and lotteries, that romanticizes the riverboat gambler and admires the Wall Street wildcatters who strike it rich, and that weaves superstition into the fabric of everyday life? A deep, seldom acknowledged reverence for luck runs through our whole history, and it is this strand of our national dynamic that Jackson Lears follows from the colonial era to the late twentieth century in this highly original new book, tracing how luck, chance, and gambling have shaped and, at times, defined our national character.