For a Dollar and a Dream

Cohen argues that the history of lotteries shows that the same conditions that spur players to spend large chunks of their often-meager incomes on lottery tickets hoping for a life-changing jackpot have also motivated states to legalize and promote lotteries....In addition to providing a chronological history of the spread of lotteries, this volume also examines the peculiar paradox of lottery advertising and the politics of lotteries in the South. All in all, this is a well-researched look at an enduring American phenomenon that, as a recent $2 billion Powerball jackpot demonstrated, seems to be here to stay. * Choice * For A Dollar and a Dream is a powerful and incisive look into the lottery era in this country and how gambling is a reflection of its time. Jonathan D. Cohen reveals how state governments have gambled with the citizenry as they 'bet on betting' to avoid taxation. Most importantly he de-stigmatizes those people who play lotteries, showing that a quest to hit it big with winning tickets is a quest to achieve the American Dream by the only means available. Luck is at the heart of lotteries, and we're lucky that Cohen decided to write this deeply researched and captivating book. * Bridgett M. Davis, author of The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers * Into this wild decade of NFTs, SPACs, and cryptocurrencies, wherein America's meritocratic ethos is confronted by a casino's worth of speculative investment schemes, Jonathan Cohen delivers more than just a fascinating history of state lotteries, but a window into the nation's hot mess of humanity: our tribal tendencies, social hierarchies, economic insecurities, political chicanery, religious delusions, aversion to taxation, and deeply held beliefs about work, fate, self-reliance, and deservedness of our fortunes, good or ill. For a Dollar and a Dream pegs America's lottery fervor to the same societal forces that fueled the rise of prosperity gospel during the '60s and '70s. Games of chance and faith in the unknowable, as one source explains, are but two sides of the same coin, ways for humanity to deal with life's precarious prospects. * Michael Mechanic, author of Jackpot: How the Super-Rich Really Live, and How Their Wealth Harms Us All * With a fluid narrative that travels from the sidewalks of Newark and Chicago, to sunny California, to Bible Belt Georgia, this book allows us to understand the manner in which a complex and pernicious system of government lotteries has emerged. Cohen examines our sordid politics as well as our inner lives, shedding light on the dreamworld that lotteries have created in which American beliefs about wealth and religion have blurred into a confused synthesis. Widespread lottery participation has been at the center of American reaction to the emergence of glaring inequality in the late twentieth century. State governments have adopted an adverse position towards their citizens, and this book explains how this all came to be. * Matthew Vaz, author of Running the Numbers: Race, Police, and the History of Urban Gambling * For a Dollar and a Dream will be the reference for historical analysis of the gambling industry in the United States. * Richard McGowan, S.J., Boston College *