“Dreams & Dilemmas is an angry love letter about one of America's great small towns and what our affluent society is doing to it. The authors love Aspen, but they are angry about what is happening to it and to other small towns. Some towns are dying. Other towns are being absorbed by megalopolis. Some, like Aspen, are changing. The authors hold that the American small town, as a unique entity, should be preserved and defended as stoutly as conservation groups defend such natural resources like the Grand Canyon and California's redwood trees. But they do not have much hope. They see us entering into an era of "environmental collapse"; given the nature of the American people, we will ultimately manage to destroy the entire country, fouling water and air, scarring meadow, forest, and mountain, and covering most everything else with ocean-to-ocean asphalt.

But this book is more than an indictment of the affluent society. It is a tough-minded but loving close-up look at Aspen - not the ski resort - but the small, stubborn, quirky, enchanting town itself, the Aspen that few know. John M. Smith first came to Aspen in 1950, Peggy Clifford in 1953. They know the town intimately, and they understand Aspen, its foibles, its charms, its uniqueness and its value. Here is a verbal/visual look at Aspen through incisive interviews with some of its most interesting citizens, a fascinating account of its history and its growth, a vivid comparison of Aspen and its glamorous new neighbor Snowmass-at-Aspen, with over 100 photographs. There is only one Aspen, and here it is captured with sensitive prose and striking photographs. Admittedly dreamers, the authors hope that their love and their anger will be infectious, perhaps saving America from its own arrogant affluence.”