Chris Gardner American Dream

  chris gardner american dream: The Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner, Quincy Troupe, 2009-03-17 The rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street—the basis for the major motion picture starring Will Smith. At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm than Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him as part of the city’s working homeless and with a toddler son. Motivated by the promise he made to himself as a fatherless child to never abandon his own children, the two spent almost a year moving among shelters, “HO-tels,” soup lines, and even sleeping in the public restroom of a subway station. Never giving in to despair, Gardner made an astonishing transformation from being part of the city’s invisible poor to being a powerful player in its financial district. More than a memoir of Gardner’s financial success, this is the story of a man who breaks his own family’s cycle of men abandoning their children. Mythic, triumphant, and unstintingly honest, The Pursuit of Happyness conjures heroes like Horatio Alger and Antwone Fisher, and appeals to the very essence of the American Dream. “Gardner is honest and thorough as he solidly depicts growing up black and male in late twentieth-century urban America . . . a quality African-American/business memoir deserving a wider audience than its niche-market elements might suggest.” —Publishers Weekly
  chris gardner american dream: Start Where You Are Chris Gardner, Mim E. Rivas, 2009-05-05 “Gardner is encouraging us all to start where we are and dare to make our lives bigger and stronger, more satisfactory, and better. Chris Gardner is a knockout!” —Maya Angelou Chris Gardner’s astonishing memoir—the phenomenal New York Times bestseller, The Pursuit of Happyness, which inspired the film of the same name starring Will Smith—served as a shining beacon of hope for countless people. In Start Where You Are, “a book that teaches you how to transform the impossible into the possible” (Sidney Poitier), Gardner offers indispensible life lessons in getting from where you are to where you want to be.
  chris gardner american dream: American Dream, a Search for Justice Sherman D. Manning, 2016-04-11 Rush (to judgment?) Limbaugh, Michael Jackson, R. Kelly and Kobe Bryant will all be shocked and amazed by this book. This book is a bombshell, scathing and horrifying. Is Rush a drug addict? Is Michael a molester? Is Kobe a rapist? What is true justice? Are our prisons working? Should we build more prisons? How do we really fight crime? These questions are methodically answered in this book. Is the California Department of Corrections corrupted? Can The Terminator save California? Can Rod Hickman clean up C.D.C.' Find out in this book.
  chris gardner american dream: Beautiful Jim Key Mim E. Rivas, 2009-10-13 The remarkable true saga of an exceptional animal—and the no less exceptional man who led him to greatness: “Seabiscuit had nothing on Beautiful Jim Key.” —Sacramento Bee Beautiful Jim Key—the onetime ugly duckling of a scrub colt who became one of the most beloved heroes of the turn of the twentieth century—was adored not for his beauty and speed but rather for his remarkable abilities to read, write, spell, do mathematics, even debate politics. Trained with patience and kindness by one of the most renowned horse whisperers of his day—former slave, Civil War veteran, and self-taught veterinarian Dr. William Key—Jim performed in expositions across the country to wildly receptive crowds for nine glorious years, smashing box office records, clearing towering hurdles of skepticism and prejudice, and earning the respect and admiration of some of the most influential figures of the era, from Booker T. Washington to President William McKinley. “Wonderful . . . a fascinating and touching book.” —Winston-Salem Journal “If Beautiful Jim Key were alive today, he’d have a movie deal.” —People “A classic. . . . a window into a lost world.” —Nashville Scene “Chronicles the adventures of a great horse and the men who loved him . . . engaging.” —Entertainment Weekly “Compelling . . . a vivid slice of Americana.” —Parade “Captivating.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
  chris gardner american dream: Raising Supaman Nathaniel A. Turner, Nathaniel a Turner J. D., 2014-01-11 In October 1994, Nathaniel Turner received news that left him petrified and ecstatic - he was going to be a father. Turner was inexperienced and unprepared. There was no guidebook on how to be a father. Determined to defy stereotypes and to be a great father, Turner created his own parenting manual. Raising Supaman is a collection of beautifully written letters Turner wrote to his son. The wonderfully loving letters established the relational legacy, provided instruction on being a great citizen, inspired his son to strive for excellence, and left a historical account of a parent's love. Raising Supaman is loaded with practical, insightful and useful tips to help parents. Raising Supaman encourages parents to be their best so that they can raise successful children. Whether you are dealing with the growing pains of a child or whether you are a attempting to inspire or motivate a child, Raising Supaman is a must read. If you've been looking for the answers: an instructional manual for great parenting, a tool to improve your relationship with your child and a guidebook that can inspire a child to consistently reach for the moon, Raising Supaman is just the book for you.
  chris gardner american dream: The Tanning of America Steve Stoute, 2011-09-08 The business marketing genius at the forefront of today's entertainment marketing revolution helps corporate America get hip to today's new consumer-the tan generation - by learning from hip-hop and youth culture. He is the conduit between corporate America and rap and the streets-he speaks both languages. -Jay-Z It's amazing to see the direct impact that black music, videos and the internet have had on culture. I've seen so many people race to the top of pop stardom using the everyday mannerisms of the hood in a pop setting. It's time to embrace this phenomenon because it ain't going nowhere! -Kanye West When Fortune 500 companies need to reenergize or reinvent a lagging brand, they call Steve Stoute. In addition to marrying cultural icons with blue-chip marketers (Beyoncé for Tommy Hilfiger's True Star fragrance, and Justin Timberlake for lovin' it at McDonald's), Stoute has helped identify and activate a new generation of consumers. He traces how the tanning phenomenon raised a generation of black, Hispanic, white, and Asian consumers who have the same mental complexion based on shared experiences and values. This consumer is a mindset-not a race or age-that responds to shared values and experiences, rather than the increasingly irrelevant demographic boxes that have been used to a fault by corporate America. And Stoute believes there is a language gap that must be bridged in order to engage the most powerful market force in the history of commerce. The Tanning of America provides that very translation guide. Drawing from his company's case studies, as well as from extensive interviews with leading figures of multiple fields, Stoute presents an insider's view of how the transcendent power of popular culture is helping reinvigorate and revitalize the American dream. He shows how he bridges the worlds of pop culture, brand consulting, and marketing in his turnkey campaigns offers keen insight into other successful campaigns-including the election of Barack Obama-to illustrate the power of the tan generation, and how to connect with it while staying true to your core brand.
  chris gardner american dream: The American Dream. Background and development Carolina Bricks, 2016-12-19 Pre-University Paper from the year 2015 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1, , language: English, abstract: Probably everybody has heard about it, being legendary and part of many people's lives: the American Dream. But is it really a dream? A myth, an Illusion, we wake up from – disappointing and simply untrue? Or is it reality? This question is answered through many points dealing with the issue. This paper defines the term American Dream and shows how the dream might have developed, examines the biographies of famous representatives, such as Martin Luther King and deals with the resulting massive immigration to the US in the past and today, giving deep insights into America ́s history and showing the present day American Dream.
  chris gardner american dream: Hidden America Jeanne Marie Laskas, 2012-09-13 An Oprah.com “Must-Read Book” Award-winning journalist Jeanne Marie Laskas reveals “enlightening, entertaining, and often poignant”* profiles of America's working class—the forgotten men and women who make our country run. Take the men of Hopedale Mining company in Cadiz, Ohio. Laskas spent several weeks with them, both below and above ground, and by the end, you will know not only about their work, but about Pap and his dying mom, Smitty and the mail-order bride who stood him up at the airport, and Scotty and his thwarted dreams of becoming a boxing champion. That is only one hidden world. Others that she explores: an Alaskan oil rig, a migrant labor camp in Maine, the air traffic control center at LaGuardia Airport in New York, a beef ranch in Texas, a landfill in California, a long-haul trucker in Iowa, a gun shop in Arizona, and the Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleaders, mere footnotes in the moneymaking spectacle that is professional football. “Jeanne Marie Laskas is a reporting and writing powerhouse. She doesn’t just interview the people who dig our coal and extract our oil, she goes deep into the mines and tundra with them. With beauty, wit, curiosity, and grace, she finds the hidden soul of America. Hidden America is essential reading.”—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
  chris gardner american dream: American Harvest Marie Mutsuki Mockett, 2020-04-07 An epic story of the American wheat harvest, the politics of food, and the culture of the Great Plains For over one hundred years, the Mockett family has owned a seven-thousand-acre wheat farm in the panhandle of Nebraska, where Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s father was raised. Mockett, who grew up in bohemian Carmel, California, with her father and her Japanese mother, knew little about farming when she inherited this land. Her father had all but forsworn it. In American Harvest, Mockett accompanies a group of evangelical Christian wheat harvesters through the heartland at the invitation of Eric Wolgemuth, the conservative farmer who has cut her family’s fields for decades. As Mockett follows Wolgemuth’s crew on the trail of ripening wheat from Texas to Idaho, they contemplate what Wolgemuth refers to as “the divide,” inadvertently peeling back layers of the American story to expose its contradictions and unhealed wounds. She joins the crew in the fields, attends church, and struggles to adapt to the rhythms of rural life, all the while continually reminded of her own status as a person who signals “not white,” but who people she encounters can’t quite categorize. American Harvest is an extraordinary evocation of the land and a thoughtful exploration of ingrained beliefs, from evangelical skepticism of evolution to cosmopolitan assumptions about food production and farming. With exquisite lyricism and humanity, this astonishing book attempts to reconcile competing versions of our national story.
  chris gardner american dream: Birth of a Dream Weaver Ngugi wa Thiong'o, 2016-10-04 One of Oprah.com's 17 Must-Read Books for the New Year and O Magazine's 10 Titles to Pick up Now. “Exquisite in its honesty and truth and resilience, and a necessary chronicle from one of the greatest writers of our time. ” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian, Best Books of 2016. “Every page ripples with a contagious faith in education and in the power of literature to shape the imagination and scour the conscience.” —The Washington Post From one of the world's greatest writers, the story of how the author found his voice as a novelist at Makerere University in Uganda Birth of a Dream Weaver charts the very beginnings of a writer's creative output. In this wonderful memoir, Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o recounts the four years he spent at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda—threshold years during which he found his voice as a journalist, short story writer, playwright, and novelist just as colonial empires were crumbling and new nations were being born—under the shadow of the rivalries, intrigues, and assassinations of the Cold War. Haunted by the memories of the carnage and mass incarceration carried out by the British colonial-settler state in his native Kenya but inspired by the titanic struggle against it, Ngũgĩ, then known as James Ngugi, begins to weave stories from the fibers of memory, history, and a shockingly vibrant and turbulent present. What unfolds in this moving and thought-provoking memoir is simultaneously the birth of one of the most important living writers—lauded for his epic imagination (Los Angeles Times)—the death of one of the most violent episodes in global history, and the emergence of new histories and nations with uncertain futures.
  chris gardner american dream: Spirit Run Noé Álvarez, 2021-03-02 In this New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, the son of working-class Mexican immigrants flees a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run in a Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala in this stunning memoir that moves to the rhythm of feet, labor, and the many landscapes of the Americas (Catriona Menzies-Pike, author of The Long Run). Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez worked at an apple–packing plant alongside his mother, who “slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives.” A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first–generation Latino college–goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O’odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four–month–long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear—dangers included stone–throwing motorists and a mountain lion—but also of asserting Indigenous and working–class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities. Running through mountains, deserts, and cities, and through the Mexican territory his parents left behind, Álvarez forges a new relationship with the land, and with the act of running, carrying with him the knowledge of his parents’ migration, and—against all odds in a society that exploits his body and rejects his spirit—the dream of a liberated future. This book is not like any other out there. You will see this country in a fresh way, and you might see aspects of your own soul. A beautiful run. —Luís Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels When the son of two Mexican immigrants hears about the Peace and Dignity Journeys—'epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America'—he’s compelled enough to drop out of college and sign up for one. Spirit Run is Noé Álvarez’s account of the four months he spends trekking from Canada to Guatemala alongside Native Americans representing nine tribes, all of whom are seeking brighter futures through running, self–exploration, and renewed relationships with the land they’ve traversed. —Runner's World, Best New Running Books of 2020 An anthem to the landscape that holds our identities and traumas, and its profound power to heal them. —Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River
  chris gardner american dream: Teaching the Movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" Nadine Custer, 2017-08-11 Seminar paper from the year 2012 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 2,8, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Anglistik), course: Teaching (with) films, language: English, abstract: The goal of this work is to show possibilities and to analyze the usability for working with the film “the pursuit of happyness” (spelled on purpose with an “y” instead of an “i”) in class. I will start with a summarize of the films content in a short form (chapter two). Chapter three will introduce and analyze the main topics of the film. In chapter four, the main part of this term paper, will try to explain why this film is a good choice for working with it in the EFL classroom. Hereby I will try to show how this film can be embedded in topics of the German curriculum.
  chris gardner american dream: No Way Home Tyler Wetherall, 2018-04-03 One of PureWow's 20 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018 and Books to Read in April • One of InStyle UK's Best New Books to Read in 2018 • One of LitHub's 20 Books You Should Read This April • One of Bustle's 5 Gripping Memoirs Under 300 Pages To Read In One Weekend A memoir of growing up on the run—and what happens when it comes to a stop. Lucid, tender, exquisitely re-imagined, and compulsively readable. —Jessica Nelson, author of If Only You People Could Follow Directions In this wondrous and richly detailed coming of age story, Tyler Wetherall follows the breadcrumbs of her childhood to discover a family home that is unlike any other. —Katy Lederer, author of Poker Face Tyler had lived in thirteen houses and five countries by the time she was nine. A willful and curious child, she never questioned her strange upbringing, that is, until Scotland Yard showed up outside her ramshackle English home, and she discovered her family had been living a lie: Her father was a fugitive and her name was not her own. In sunny California, ten years earlier, her father’s criminal organization first came to the FBI’s attention. Soon after her parents were forced on the run taking their three young children with them, and they spent the following years fleeing through Europe, assuming different identities and hiding out in a series of far-flung places. Now her father was attempting one final escape—except this time, he couldn’t take her with him. In this emotionally compelling and gripping memoir, Tyler Wetherall brings to life her fugitive childhood, following the threads that tie a family together through hardship, from her parents’ first meeting in 1960s New York to her present life as a restless writer unpacking the secrets of her past. No Way Home is about love, loss, and learning to tell the story of our lives.
  chris gardner american dream: American Moonshot Douglas Brinkley, 2019-04-02 Instant New York Times Bestseller As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.
  chris gardner american dream: American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power Andrea Bernstein, 2020-01-14 An absorbing, novelistic, and powerfully affecting work of history and investigative journalism that tracks the unraveling of American democracy. In American Oligarchs, award-winning investigative journalist Andrea Bernstein tells the story of the Trump and Kushner families like never before. Building on her landmark reporting for the acclaimed podcast Trump, Inc. and The New Yorker, Bernstein brings to light new information about the families’ arrival as immigrants to America, their paths to success, and the business and personal lives of the president and his closest family members. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and more than one hundred thousand pages of documents, American Oligarchs details how the Trump and Kushner dynasties encouraged and profited from a system of corruption, dark money, and influence trading, and reveals the historical turning points and decisions?on taxation, regulation, white-collar crime, and campaign finance laws?that have brought us to where we are today. A new afterword examines how the two families’ transactional politics left America particularly vulnerable to the crises of 2020.
  chris gardner american dream: The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection Gardner Dozois, 2002-07-23 The twenty-first century has so far proven to be exciting and wondrous and filled with challenges we had never dreamed. New possibilities previously unimagined appear almost daily . . . and science fiction stories continue to explore those possibilities with delightful results: Collected in this anthology are such compelling stories as: On K2 with Kanakaredes by Dan Simmons. A relentlessly paced and absorbing tale set in the near future about three mountain climbers who must scale the face of K2 with some very odd company. The Human Front by Ken MacLeod. In this compassionate coming-of-age tale the details of life are just a bit off from things as we know them-and nothing is as it appears to be. Glacial by Alastair Reynolds. A fascinating discovery on a distant planet leads to mass death and a wrenching mystery as spellbinding as anything in recent short fiction. The twenty-six stories in this collection imaginatively takes us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including: Eleanor Arnason Chris Beckett Michael Blumlein Michael Cassutt Brenda W. Clough Paul Di Filippo Andy Duncan Carolyn Ives Gilman Jim Grimsley Simon Ings James Patrick Kelly Leigh Kennedy Nancy Kress Ian R. MacLeod Ken MacLeod Paul J. McAuley Maureen F. McHugh Robert Reed Alastair Reynolds Geoff Ryman William Sanders Dan Simmons Allen M. Steele Charles Stross Michael Swanwick Howard Waldrop Supplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a lengthy list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.
  chris gardner american dream: Dark Mirror Barton Gellman, 2020-05-19 From the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Angler, who unearthed the deepest secrets of Edward Snowden's NSA archive, the first master narrative of the surveillance state that emerged after 9/11 and why it matters, based on scores of hours of conversation with Snowden and groundbreaking reportage in Washington, London, Moscow and Silicon Valley Edward Snowden chose three journalists to tell the stories in his Top Secret trove of NSA documents: Barton Gellman of The Washington Post, Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian and filmmaker Laura Poitras, all of whom would share the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Poitras went on to direct the Oscar-winning Citizen Four. Greenwald wrote an instant memoir and cast himself as a pugilist on Snowden's behalf. Barton Gellman took his own path. Snowden and his documents were the beginning, not the end, of a story he had prepared his whole life to tell. More than 20 years as a top investigative journalist armed him with deep sources in national security and high technology. New sources reached out from government and industry, making contact on the same kinds of secret, anonymous channels that Snowden used. Gellman's old reporting notes unlocked new puzzles in the NSA archive. Long days and evenings with Snowden in Moscow revealed a complex character who fit none of the stock images imposed on him by others. Gellman now brings his unique access and storytelling gifts to a true-life spy tale that touches us all. Snowden captured the public imagination but left millions of people unsure what to think. Who is the man, really? How did he beat the world's most advanced surveillance agency at its own game? Is government and corporate spying as bad as he says? Dark Mirror is the master narrative we have waited for, told with authority and an inside view of extraordinary events. Within it is a personal account of the obstacles facing the author, beginning with Gellman's discovery of his own name in the NSA document trove. Google notifies him that a foreign government is trying to compromise his account. A trusted technical adviser finds anomalies on his laptop. Sophisticated impostors approach Gellman with counterfeit documents, attempting to divert or discredit his work. Throughout Dark Mirror, the author describes an escalating battle against unknown digital adversaries, forcing him to mimic their tradecraft in self-defense. Written in the vivid scenes and insights that marked Gellman's bestselling Angler, Dark Mirror is an inside account of the surveillance-industrial revolution and its discontents, fighting back against state and corporate intrusions into our most private spheres. Along the way it tells the story of a government leak unrivaled in drama since All the President's Men.
  chris gardner american dream: The Chris Farley Show Tom Farley, Jr., Tanner Colby, 2008-05-06 The New York Times bestselling biography of an American comedy legend After three years of sobriety, Chris Farley's life was at its creative peak until a string of professional disappointments chased him back to drugs and alcohol. He fought hard against them, but it was a fight he would lose in December 1997. Farley's fans immediately drew parallels between his death and that of his idol, John Belushi. Without looking deeper, however, many failed to see that Farley was much more than just another Hollywood drug overdose. In this officially authorized oral history, Farley's friends and family remember his work and life. Along the way, they tell a remarkable story of boundless energy, determination, and laughter that could only keep the demons at bay for so long.
  chris gardner american dream: Minesweeper (Special Forces, Book 2) Chris Lynch, 2019-12-03 All the sizzle, chaos, noise and scariness of war is clay in the hands of ace storyteller Lynch. -- Kirkus Reviews for the World War II series Discover the secret missions behind America's greatest conflicts.Fergus Frew thought he knew what to expect when he signed up with the Navy's demolitions team. But as the Korean War rages on, Fergus and his fellow divers -- AKA frogmen -- are tasked with more than just scouting mudflats. Soon they're planting mines. And sabotaging tunnels, bridges... and even fishing nets. Strangest of all, it falls to Fergus to transport a spy into the country -- and that means traveling far from Navy-controlled waters.But frogmen are amphibious. And Fergus may not realize it, but he's in a position to change the way the whole world thinks about combat.National Book Award finalist Chris Lynch continues his explosive fiction series based on the real-life, top-secret history of US black ops and today's heroic Navy SEALs.
  chris gardner american dream: Condé Nast Susan Ronald, 2019-09-03 The first biography in over thirty years of Condé Nast, the pioneering publisher of Vogue and Vanity Fair and main rival to media magnate William Randolph Hearst. Condé Nast’s life and career was as high profile and glamorous as his magazines. Moving to New York in the early twentieth century with just the shirt on his back, he soon became the highest paid executive in the United States, acquiring Vogue in 1909 and Vanity Fair in 1913. Alongside his editors, Edna Woolman Chase at Vogue and Frank Crowninshield at Vanity Fair, he built the first-ever international magazine empire, introducing European modern art, style, and fashions to an American audience. Credited with creating the “café society,” Nast became a permanent fixture on the international fashion scene and a major figure in New York society. His superbly appointed apartment at 1040 Park Avenue, decorated by the legendary Elsie de Wolfe, became a gathering place for the major artistic figures of the time. Nast launched the careers of icons like Cecil Beaton, Clare Boothe Luce, Lee Miller, Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward. He left behind a legacy that endures today in media powerhouses such as Anna Wintour, Tina Brown, and Graydon Carter. Written with the cooperation of his family on both sides of the Atlantic and a dedicated team at Condé Nast Publications, critically acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the life of an extraordinary American success story.
  chris gardner american dream: Finding Fish Antwone Fisher, Mim E. Rivas, 2009-10-13 The author recounts his life from birth in prison to success in Hollywood in the New York Times–bestselling memoir that inspired the film Antwone Fisher. Baby Boy Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment he was born to a single mother in prison. He ultimately came to live with a foster family, where he endured near-constant verbal and physical abuse. In his mid-teens he escaped and enlisted in the navy, where he became a man of the world, raised by the family he created for himself. Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born—first as the child who painted the feelings his words dared not speak, then as a poet and storyteller who would eventually become one of Hollywood's most sought-after screenwriters. A tumultuous and ultimately gratifying tale of self-discovery written in Fisher's gritty yet melodic literary voice, Finding Fish “reads like a great work of fiction” (Denzel Washington).
  chris gardner american dream: All Jokes Aside Raymond Lambert, Chris Bournea, 2016 In the 1990s, legendary Chicago comedy club All Jokes Aside catapulted some of the biggest names in the business to the national stage: Jamie Foxx, Mo'Nique, Chris Rock, Steve Harvey, and Dave Chappelle, just to name a few. Behind the operation was Raymond Lambert, a 29-year-old investment banker who left a six-figure salary and a promising career on Wall Street to open the comedy club. Lambert channeled his experience in the cutthroat financial industry into what became the preeminent black comedy showcase in Americaand then he lost it all. All Jokes Aside: Stand-Up Comedy Is a Phunny Business is the wildly entertaining story of Lambert's journey, a behind-the-scenes look at the world of show business, and an inspiring tale for any dreamer and would-be entrepreneur. In 2012, Lambert released the documentary film Phunny Business, which profiles his iconic club through interviews with many of the club's most famous alumni. The film was met with worldwide acclaim and has since been nationally syndicated on Showtime and has sold more than 50,000 copies. All Jokes Aside provides an even deeper look into Lambert's successes and failures, as well as the lessons he learned from running America's one-time preeminent black comedy showcase. In the late 1980s, with a degree from Morehouse College and an MBA from University of Virginia's Darden School under his belt, the young Lambert had one more thing going for him: he was being mentored by legendary investment banker Chris Gardner, famously portrayed in an Oscar-nominated performance by Will Smith in the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness. The only problem was that Lambert still felt unfulfilled. So on August 9, 1991, with no experience running a comedy club, Lambert and business partner James Alexander borrowed money from Alexander's mother and opened All Jokes Aside on Chicago's South Side. For a decade, All Jokes Aside was an often-unheralded star factory that nonetheless made an indelible impression on American pop culture. The club gave crucial early exposure to major talents, many of whom are now headliners of Hollywood's top box-office blockbusters. All Jokes Aside is chock-full of cautionary tales both humorous and dramatic, intimate details on the early careers of today's star performers, and tangible guidance on how to build a business. Lambert's storytelling is funny, insightful, and brutally honest. Whether you are looking for business advice or an uproarious good time,All Jokes Aside is a much-needed history of black entertainment and an uplifting personal memoir of stepping out into the spotlight.
  chris gardner american dream: College Andrew Delbanco, 2023-04-18 The strengths and failures of the American college, and why liberal education still matters As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich. In describing what a true college education should be, he demonstrates why making it available to as many young people as possible remains central to America's democratic promise. In a brisk and vivid historical narrative, Delbanco explains how the idea of college arose in the colonial period from the Puritan idea of the gathered church, how it struggled to survive in the nineteenth century in the shadow of the new research universities, and how, in the twentieth century, it slowly opened its doors to women, minorities, and students from low-income families. He describes the unique strengths of America’s colleges in our era of globalization and, while recognizing the growing centrality of science, technology, and vocational subjects in the curriculum, he mounts a vigorous defense of a broadly humanistic education for all. Acknowledging the serious financial, intellectual, and ethical challenges that all colleges face today, Delbanco considers what is at stake in the urgent effort to protect these venerable institutions for future generations.
  chris gardner american dream: Martin's Dream Clayborne Carson, 2013-01-08 On August 28, 1963 hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flocked to the nation's capital for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech. It was Clayborne Carson's first demonstration. A nineteen year old black student from a working-class family in New Mexico, Carson hitched a ride to Washington. Unsure how he would return home, he was nonetheless certain that he wanted to connect with the youthful protesters and community organizers who spearheaded the freedom struggle. Decades later, Coretta Scott King selected Dr. Carson—then a history professor at Stanford University-- to edit the papers of her late husband. In this candid and engrossing memoir, he traces his evolution from political activist to activist scholar. He vividly recalls his involvement in the movement's heyday and in the subsequent turbulent period when King's visionary Dream became real for some and remained unfulfilled for others. He recounts his conversations with key African Americans of the past half century, including Black Power firebrand Stokely Carmichael and dedicated organizers such as Ella Baker and Bob Moses. His description of his long-term relationship with Coretta Scott King sheds new light on her crucial role in preserving and protecting her late husband's legacy. Written from the unique perspective of a renowned scholar, this highly readable account gives readers valuable new insights about the global significance of King's inspiring ideas and his still unfolding legacy
  chris gardner american dream: Go Where There Is No Path Christopher Gray, Mim Eichler Rivas, 2022-08-23 For all who dare to go off the beaten track, this is the inspirational, power-packed playbook for transforming your life and your world--from a young, Black social entrepreneur whose dorm-room tech startup, Scholly, has helped millions pay for college and access unprecedented opportunity. Christopher Gray grew up in deep poverty in Birmingham, Alabama. An academic star, he had every qualification for attending a top college--except for the financial means. Desperate, Gray headed off the beaten path, applying for every scholarship he could find. His hustle resulted in awards of 1.3 million dollars and inspired him to create a startup called Scholly, an app that matches college applicants with millions of dollars in scholarships that often go unclaimed. As a senior at Drexel University, Gray appeared on Shark Tank and, in the most heated fight in the show's history, was challenged on whether his app was a charity or a profitable business. Both, he insisted, proposing a new paradigm for social entrepreneurship and netting deals from Lori Greiner and Daymond John. At the time Scholly had 90,000 users. Today the app has 4 million subscribers who have won scholarships totaling more than $100 million. Meanwhile, Gray has emerged as a tech startup superhero now tackling the crisis of student debt with innovative, unrivaled strategies. Gray's story is proof that when you create opportunities for others, you enrich the marketplace for yourself too. He shows us, we can carve out new paths to better days and leave trails for others.
  chris gardner american dream: The Myths That Made America Heike Paul, 2014-08-15 This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man. The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American studies and will foster an understanding of the United States of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.
  chris gardner american dream: Shattered Dreams Irene Spencer, 2007-08-22 Irene Spencer did as she felt God commanded in marrying her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron, becoming his second wife. When the government raided the fundamentalist, polygamous Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona, Irene and her family fled to Verlan's brothers' Mexican ranch. They lived in squalor and desolate conditions in the Mexican desert with Verlan's six brothers, one sister, and numerous wives and children. Readers will be appalled and astonished, but most amazingly, greatly inspired. Irene's dramatic story reveals how far religion can be stretched and abused and how one woman and her children found their way out, into truth and redemption.
  chris gardner american dream: The Power of Culture Priscilla Roberts, 2016-01-14 China and the United States, two massive economic and military powers, cannot avoid engaging with each other. Enjoying what is often termed “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”, the two sometimes cooperate, but often compete, as their interests come into conflict. Both countries are separated not just by the Pacific Ocean, but also by their very different histories, experiences, societies, customs, and outlooks. Non-governmental, unofficial relationships and exchanges are often as important as formal dealings in determining the climate of Sino-American relations. For several decades in the mid-twentieth century, Chinese and Americans were virtually isolated from each other, trapped in icy hostility. Chinese scholars are now making up for lost time. This assortment of essays, most by mainland Chinese academics and students, focuses upon the role of culture – very broadly defined – in Sino-American affairs. Taking a holistic approach, in this collection over thirty authors focus on such topics as the influence of ideology, the impact of geopolitics, the use of rhetoric, soft power, educational encounters and exchanges, immigration, gender, race, identity, literature, television, movies, music, and the press. Cultural factors are, as the authors demonstrate, enormously significant in affecting how Chinese and Americans think about and approach each other, both as individuals and at the state level.
  chris gardner american dream: Superforecasting Philip E. Tetlock, Dan Gardner, 2015-09-29 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST “The most important book on decision making since Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow.”—Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week’s meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts’ predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight, and Tetlock has spent the past decade trying to figure out why. What makes some people so good? And can this talent be taught? In Superforecasting, Tetlock and coauthor Dan Gardner offer a masterwork on prediction, drawing on decades of research and the results of a massive, government-funded forecasting tournament. The Good Judgment Project involves tens of thousands of ordinary people—including a Brooklyn filmmaker, a retired pipe installer, and a former ballroom dancer—who set out to forecast global events. Some of the volunteers have turned out to be astonishingly good. They’ve beaten other benchmarks, competitors, and prediction markets. They’ve even beaten the collective judgment of intelligence analysts with access to classified information. They are superforecasters. In this groundbreaking and accessible book, Tetlock and Gardner show us how we can learn from this elite group. Weaving together stories of forecasting successes (the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound) and failures (the Bay of Pigs) and interviews with a range of high-level decision makers, from David Petraeus to Robert Rubin, they show that good forecasting doesn’t require powerful computers or arcane methods. It involves gathering evidence from a variety of sources, thinking probabilistically, working in teams, keeping score, and being willing to admit error and change course. Superforecasting offers the first demonstrably effective way to improve our ability to predict the future—whether in business, finance, politics, international affairs, or daily life—and is destined to become a modern classic.
  chris gardner american dream: Doing the Impossible Patrick Bet-David, 2012-01-16 What does Doing the Impossible really mean? This book is for those who have a desire to achieve greatness and are ready to take the steps to turn that desire into a reality. At one point or another in this book, you will experience several different reactions - excitement, curiosity, joy, laughter, or even tears - but the ultimate goal is to encourage and challenge you to make a decision to do the impossible. That may have a totally different meaning to you than it did to Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, or any of the other role models we will look at; but whatever Doing the Impossible means to you, the goal of this book is to help you realize that you have the capacity to do what the critics think is impossible. - Patrick Bet-David, Introduction to Doing the Impossible. Doing the Impossible is a roadmap for those who want to do something big with their lives. The book goes over 25 steps that the reader should take to re-create themselves, identify their cause, and make history. Patrick Bet-David shares his own impossible crusade and gives key principles for anyone looking to do the same.
  chris gardner american dream: An American Speaks Out N. E. Parks, 2015-04-06 There are fundamental flaws in our political system and the policies, cost, and function of the federal government that seriously need to be corrected for this country to be the great country it once was for all those seeking the American dream. The American dream is different and personal for each individual, but the concept revolves around the ability for all people to be free to self-actualize their talents, abilities, and desires, not just for fame and fortune, but in order to live a happy and prosperous life. Thus, the American dream is about ensuring that we look out for the greater good in our policies and legislation that support opportunities for health, education, housing, research and development, innovation, jobs, and retirement. We have contracted with our government officials to carry this out. If they are not willing to act, then we must react by seeking out good candidates and voting for them. In a timely discussion, her book provides some common sense ideas on how to put the government back in the hands of the people who have had their lives turned upside down from loss of jobs, the mortgage crisis, high cost of education and healthcare, risky 401ks, and an insecurity in the future not seen since the Great Depression. She outlines how the nation got into such a mess and proposes a domestic plan to focus on the national priorities most Americans are concerned about. She outlines how to get Americans back to work, reduce the federal budget deficit, establish national priorities, make congress functional so it can do its job, make the federal government more effective and efficient, better educate our children, improve our infrastructure, and, as a result, hopefully reduce crime and create opportunity for our people.
  chris gardner american dream: Social Psychology Karen A. Hegtvedt, Cathryn Johnson, 2017-07-12 Social Psychology: Individuals, Interaction, and Inequality invites you to take a sociological approach to the study of the individual in relationship to society. This unique new text explains how social psychology provides varied, yet interrelated, explanations for individuals′ experiences in groups and how the micro-level interactions of individuals have consequences for macro-level phenomena within society. Karen A. Hegtvedt and Cathryn Johnson describe an array of processes that shape interaction given differences in status, power, or group memberships. Unlike other social psychology texts, theirs stresses the interconnections among these processes to create a story about how individuals perceive and then act in their social worlds. In addition to introducing the central theoretical approaches and important empirical studies, the authors also provide many examples that help students locate the substance of social psychology in their own experiences and social interactions. In the end, readers will gain an understanding of how their identities and perceptions shape what they do, how the structures in which they are embedded may constrain or facilitate their behaviors, and how these dynamics contribute to reinforcing or ameliorating inequalities in their social groups.
  chris gardner american dream: The American Father Onscreen Toby Reynolds, 2021-12-21 The American father is constantly depicted by contemporary Hollywood as being under pressure and forever struggling, but why? By utilising an analytical psychological approach, this fascinating book reveals the depths, complexities and nuances of the depictions of the American father and his struggles with contemporary contextual challenges and offers a fresh and intellectually exciting set of perspectives and interpretations of this key masculine figure and his effect on cinematic masculinities. Using a post-Jungian methodology and close textual analysis, the book seeks to explore the presence and impact of the American filmic father, and the effect his Shadow has on himself, his children and US society. It does this by examining the concept of ‘father hunger’, a term popularised by the mytho-poetic men’s movement that holds fathers to be an essential link to the masculine continuum and masculinity in general. Analysing the role that Hollywood plays in depicting fathers and their relationships with their children and American society, The American Father Onscreen concludes that Hollywood presents the American paternal as crucial to the construction of US society and, consequently, American cultural myths, such as the American Dream. Providing an alternative perspective into the fascinating, complex, and under-researched figure of the American father, this book will be of great interest to academics and students of film, gender studies, American studies, and post-Jungian psychology.
  chris gardner american dream: No One Succeeds Alone Robert Reffkin, Benis Reffkin, 2021 The inspirational story of Compass CEO Robert Reffkin--born black and raised Jewish--and the vital lessons he learned to help him overcome life's daunting obstacles.
  chris gardner american dream: The Wall Between Us Krystyna Ros.Sorell, 2010-02
  chris gardner american dream: Italian Americans on Screen Ryan Calabretta-Sajder, Alan J. Gravano, 2021-02-04 This book challenges past definitions of Italian American cinema and media studies by introducing fresh critical models into the discourse. Proposing new intersectional debates about ethnic identity, including race, class, gender, and sexuality studies, contributors establish new interpretations concerning Italian Americans on screen.
  chris gardner american dream: Beyond Equality Savanah N Landerholm, 2024-11-12 Women desire to move past resistance--sticky floors, glass ceilings, glass cliffs--and fulfill their potential for leadership. This book shows that equality is necessary yet insufficient as evidenced by the experiences of women leaders. Responsive agency is the answer to the empty goal of equality.
  chris gardner american dream: Narrative Productions of Meanings Donileen R. Loseke, 2019-04-08 Narrative Productions of Meaning explores how stories, ranging from self-stories to those told by media, social activists, politicians, social policy makers, and social service providers, shape the meaning of self, others, objects, events, and experiences and how these meanings have material consequences.
  chris gardner american dream: A Chinaman's Chance Eric Liu, 2014-07-08 From Tony Hsieh to Amy Chua to Jeremy Lin, Chinese Americans are now arriving at the highest levels of American business, civic life, and culture. But what makes this story of immigrant ascent unique is that Chinese Americans are emerging at just the same moment when China has emerged -- and indeed may displace America -- at the center of the global scene. What does it mean to be Chinese American in this moment? And how does exploring that question alter our notions of just what an American is and will be? In many ways, Chinese Americans today are exemplars of the American Dream: during a crowded century and a half, this community has gone from indentured servitude, second-class status and outright exclusion to economic and social integration and achievement. But this narrative obscures too much: the Chinese Americans still left behind, the erosion of the American Dream in general, the emergence -- perhaps -- of a Chinese Dream, and how other Americans will look at their countrymen of Chinese descent if China and America ever become adversaries. As Chinese Americans reconcile competing beliefs about what constitutes success, virtue, power, and purpose, they hold a mirror up to their country in a time of deep flux. In searching, often personal essays that range from the meaning of Confucius to the role of Chinese Americans in shaping how we read the Constitution to why he hates the hyphen in Chinese-American, Eric Liu pieces together a sense of the Chinese American identity in these auspicious years for both countries. He considers his own public career in American media and government; his daughter's efforts to hold and release aspects of her Chinese inheritance; and the still-recent history that made anyone Chinese in America seem foreign and disloyal until proven otherwise. Provocative, often playful but always thoughtful, Liu breaks down his vast subject into bite-sized chunks, along the way providing insights into universal matters: identity, nationalism, family, and more.
  chris gardner american dream: Brave Enough Kati Gardner, 2018-08-21 The lives of Cason Martin and Davis Channing intersect in a powerful way. Both are struggling to survive life-threatening diseases. Neither feels in control of their lives. Can they be brave enough to beat the odds?
Any good fantasy and school appropriate book suggestions?
Aug 31, 2017 · A Series of Unfortunate events is a sequel by Lemony Snicket. The first book of the series is called The Bad Beginning. Will not do any spoilers for you as it is one of my …