“Never before has our nation enjoyed, at once, so much prosperity and social progress with so little internal crisis and so few external threats,” President Clinton argued in January 2000 in his final State of the Union address. Despite this optimistic prognostication, the millennial decade was one of profound crisis, with serious consequences for the United States’ economy and society, and for the environmental sustainability of the American dream. This paper starts from the following assumptions: First, though the United States’ economic model has many strengths, its resilience has been weakened. Acute economic, social and environmental challenges will need to be addressed in either the short or long term. Second, the United States’ response to this era of crisis will be an important factor influencing how other countries react, given the size of its economy, its position as a “necessary but not sufficient” actor on most global issues and its potential for innovation. Third, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the drivers of and obstacles to change in American society to draw conclusions about its response to crisis. [...]