In Alissa Quart’s new book Bootstrapped — Liberating Ourselves From the American Dream, the author argues that the ideology of American individualism guides us all, whether we are conscious of it or not. If you are practicing individual “mindfulness,” Quart cautions that you might just be adapting to the “needs of the elites.” If you have embraced a punishing work schedule for Uber or Lyft, it’s likely that you are justifying it on the basis of “individual initiative” and “freedom.”
During the pandemic, when we were all at our most vulnerable and in need of a strong social institution, Quart was researching and writing Bootstrapped, to examine how our national myths of individualism contribute to economic inequality and political stalemate. She looked closely at famous literary works — Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance” and the pioneer stories of the Little House on the Prairie book series — to expose not only the authors’ personal hypocrisy but, more importantly, how these works have skewed our understanding of American history.
