What do you think?
Rate this book
Who Killed the American Dream?: The Greatest Political Crime Ever Told
Can't afford housing or healthcare? One 1886 Supreme Court fraud gave corporations constitutional rights over you—discover how billionaire oligarchs stole your future and the constitutional amendment to take it back.
You work harder than your parents did, yet you can't afford a home. Billionaires are richer than ever. You know the system is rigged—but no one's told you how it happened or who rigged it.
Here's what they don't teach in law In 1886, the Supreme Court never ruled that corporations have constitutional rights. That "precedent" came from a single fraudulent sentence inserted by a court reporter working with a corrupt justice.
That's why your paycheck doesn't stretch. That's why corporations have more rights than you do. That's why democracy is eroding. For 140 years, they've distracted Americans by blaming immigrants, "welfare queens," and each other—while billionaires rewrote the rules. Now people are pushing passing local ordinances, organizing for a constitutional amendment, and reclaiming power for We the People.
The rebellion has begun. Stop blaming your neighbors. Start demanding accountability. Learn how the system was stolen—and how to take it back.
You work harder than your parents did, yet you can't afford a home. Billionaires are richer than ever. You know the system is rigged—but no one's told you how it happened or who rigged it.
Here's what they don't teach in law In 1886, the Supreme Court never ruled that corporations have constitutional rights. That "precedent" came from a single fraudulent sentence inserted by a court reporter working with a corrupt justice.
That's why your paycheck doesn't stretch. That's why corporations have more rights than you do. That's why democracy is eroding. For 140 years, they've distracted Americans by blaming immigrants, "welfare queens," and each other—while billionaires rewrote the rules. Now people are pushing passing local ordinances, organizing for a constitutional amendment, and reclaiming power for We the People.
The rebellion has begun. Stop blaming your neighbors. Start demanding accountability. Learn how the system was stolen—and how to take it back.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2026
About the author
Thom Hartmann
81 books390 followersThomas Carl Hartmann is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and hosted a nightly television show, The Big Picture, between 2010 and 2017.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 10, 2026
Who Killed the American Dream? takes on one of the most persistent questions in contemporary American public life: why economic security feels increasingly difficult to achieve for so many people.
Thom Hartmann approaches the question through a combination of history, constitutional interpretation, economics, and political analysis.
The book's central argument is that today's economic pressures cannot be fully understood without examining the institutions and decisions that shaped the American system over time.
Its discussion of corporate rights places particular emphasis on the historical development of constitutional and legal interpretations.
Rather than presenting inequality as a purely modern phenomenon, the book traces the issue through a much longer historical narrative.
This historical framing gives the reader a broader context for considering present-day economic frustrations.
Housing, healthcare, wages, corporate influence, and political power are brought together within the book's larger examination of the American Dream.
One of the work's strongest qualities is its willingness to ask difficult questions about how power operates within democratic institutions.
Hartmann also challenges readers to reconsider some of the familiar explanations offered for America's economic problems.
The result is a book designed not simply to describe frustration but to investigate its historical and institutional roots.
Its subject matter will naturally encourage debate because many of its interpretations challenge conventional accounts of American political and economic history.
That quality makes the book particularly suitable for readers who enjoy nonfiction that invites examination rather than passive agreement.
The constitutional dimension adds another layer of interest for readers concerned with the relationship between law, corporations, government, and individual rights.
At the same time, the book remains focused on a practical contemporary question: what can be done about the problems it identifies?
Its proposed solutions give the discussion a forward-looking dimension rather than leaving the reader entirely within historical analysis.
Readers interested in American history, economics, constitutional questions, political institutions, and democratic accountability will find substantial material for reflection and discussion.
Overall, Who Killed the American Dream? is an ambitious and provocative examination of the forces Hartmann believes have reshaped economic opportunity in America.
Thom Hartmann approaches the question through a combination of history, constitutional interpretation, economics, and political analysis.
The book's central argument is that today's economic pressures cannot be fully understood without examining the institutions and decisions that shaped the American system over time.
Its discussion of corporate rights places particular emphasis on the historical development of constitutional and legal interpretations.
Rather than presenting inequality as a purely modern phenomenon, the book traces the issue through a much longer historical narrative.
This historical framing gives the reader a broader context for considering present-day economic frustrations.
Housing, healthcare, wages, corporate influence, and political power are brought together within the book's larger examination of the American Dream.
One of the work's strongest qualities is its willingness to ask difficult questions about how power operates within democratic institutions.
Hartmann also challenges readers to reconsider some of the familiar explanations offered for America's economic problems.
The result is a book designed not simply to describe frustration but to investigate its historical and institutional roots.
Its subject matter will naturally encourage debate because many of its interpretations challenge conventional accounts of American political and economic history.
That quality makes the book particularly suitable for readers who enjoy nonfiction that invites examination rather than passive agreement.
The constitutional dimension adds another layer of interest for readers concerned with the relationship between law, corporations, government, and individual rights.
At the same time, the book remains focused on a practical contemporary question: what can be done about the problems it identifies?
Its proposed solutions give the discussion a forward-looking dimension rather than leaving the reader entirely within historical analysis.
Readers interested in American history, economics, constitutional questions, political institutions, and democratic accountability will find substantial material for reflection and discussion.
Overall, Who Killed the American Dream? is an ambitious and provocative examination of the forces Hartmann believes have reshaped economic opportunity in America.
August 17, 2026
Ultimately I agree with much of what this book says. My issue is that it uses hyperbolic language and is highly repetitive. The phrase “morbidly rich” appears 21 times. Almost every subsection ends with a reference to “Davis’s corrupt/damnable/phony/toxic/fraudulent headnote”.
As to that headnote, don’t get me wrong, Davis sounds like a genuine shitweasel, but a cursory search yields a case not long after that outright states what this one did fraudulently. The Supreme Court had to decide that way even if I believe is a corrupt interpretation of the Constitution (I’m sure Originalists can dream up a convoluted defense of it because they always figure $ome way - I’m guessing they led refer to English Law protecting the East India Company).
Also, I’m passionate about the topic and it’s clear the author is too, but it often reads like a conspiracy theory when it is really just a statement of fact. I’d have preferred a less inflammatory and streamlined analysis that I could recommend to anybody, but the conservatives probably won’t make it far into the book (that said I know how difficult it is when the abuses are so massive). As the author says, people from both parties agree that corporations shouldn’t have constitutional rights, so why not come from that angle? I truly believe this would have been twice as powerful at half the length.
As to that headnote, don’t get me wrong, Davis sounds like a genuine shitweasel, but a cursory search yields a case not long after that outright states what this one did fraudulently. The Supreme Court had to decide that way even if I believe is a corrupt interpretation of the Constitution (I’m sure Originalists can dream up a convoluted defense of it because they always figure $ome way - I’m guessing they led refer to English Law protecting the East India Company).
Also, I’m passionate about the topic and it’s clear the author is too, but it often reads like a conspiracy theory when it is really just a statement of fact. I’d have preferred a less inflammatory and streamlined analysis that I could recommend to anybody, but the conservatives probably won’t make it far into the book (that said I know how difficult it is when the abuses are so massive). As the author says, people from both parties agree that corporations shouldn’t have constitutional rights, so why not come from that angle? I truly believe this would have been twice as powerful at half the length.
July 30, 2026
1886 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company SC decision headnote - J.C. Bancroft Davis clerk & Justice Stephen J. Field - "Corporations are people" entitled to the "equal protections" in 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. However, the Supreme Court did not address that issue in the case nor in their written opinion.
In 1873, the Court had declared that the Fourteenth Amendment’s “one pervading purpose” was “the freedom of the slave race.” In 1877, the railroads brought four different cases to the Supreme Court, arguing that they deserved constitutional protection as “persons” under that same amendment. They lost all four.
Kewis Powell memo 1971
Ronald Reagan Administration
Citizens United decision (2010) - money is speech under First Amendment
Hobby Lobby decision ( 2014) - closely held corporations have religious freedom rights. As a result, a non-living soulless corporation could refuse to provide contraception coverage to employees based on its alleged religious belief.
Over the past fifty or so years, the most effective part of the deflection—or cover-up playbook—has been a remarkably successful effort to divert Americans’ attention and anger away from the oligarchs and corporations that are actively undermining our democracy and get people to instead blame their woes on women, people of color, welfare recipients, and, most recently, nonwhite immigrants.
In 1873, the Court had declared that the Fourteenth Amendment’s “one pervading purpose” was “the freedom of the slave race.” In 1877, the railroads brought four different cases to the Supreme Court, arguing that they deserved constitutional protection as “persons” under that same amendment. They lost all four.
Kewis Powell memo 1971
Ronald Reagan Administration
Citizens United decision (2010) - money is speech under First Amendment
Hobby Lobby decision ( 2014) - closely held corporations have religious freedom rights. As a result, a non-living soulless corporation could refuse to provide contraception coverage to employees based on its alleged religious belief.
Over the past fifty or so years, the most effective part of the deflection—or cover-up playbook—has been a remarkably successful effort to divert Americans’ attention and anger away from the oligarchs and corporations that are actively undermining our democracy and get people to instead blame their woes on women, people of color, welfare recipients, and, most recently, nonwhite immigrants.
July 23, 2026
America Suffers from a Self-inflicted, Lethal, but Curable Infection
Thom Hartman exposes the fraud that our Supreme Court uses as the pretext for Constitutional corporate personhood, the insidious basis for unlimited corporate political spending in our elections as well as many other of our country's ills. He explains how this has enabled America's momentum toward oligarchy and what might stop it.
Mr. Hartman's writing is clear, concise, well-documented, and engaging. His message is timely and crucial. I highly recommend "Who Killed the Ame
rican Dream" to all who care about the present and future of our country.
Joseph Clemmons (Husband of Nora Nilsen)
Thom Hartman exposes the fraud that our Supreme Court uses as the pretext for Constitutional corporate personhood, the insidious basis for unlimited corporate political spending in our elections as well as many other of our country's ills. He explains how this has enabled America's momentum toward oligarchy and what might stop it.
Mr. Hartman's writing is clear, concise, well-documented, and engaging. His message is timely and crucial. I highly recommend "Who Killed the Ame
rican Dream" to all who care about the present and future of our country.
Joseph Clemmons (Husband of Nora Nilsen)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews