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A Condensed History of the American Dream

The phrase “American Dream” is attributed to James Truslow Adams from his 1931 history book, The Epic of America, in which he asserted that the unique gift America gave to the world was The American Dream, that dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank, which is the greatest contribution we have made to the thought and welfare of the world.  That dream or hope has been present from the start.   Ever since we became an independent nation, each generation has seen an uprising of ordinary Americans to save that dream from the forces which appeared to be overwhelming it.

Certainly some form of this “American Dream” existed long before the phrase was coined in 1931.  And its meaning has changed over time.  To the Puritans, the American Dream meant religious freedom.  The Founding Fathers declared that we all have “unalienable rights, that among those are l ife , liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  And President Franklin D. Roosevelt dreamt of four freedoms:  freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

After World War II the American Dream became consumerist, encouraging all Americans to pursue home-ownership and other material goods – even as Martin Luther King, Jr. was still dreaming of simple equality.  But for white America , I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke and the Beav symbolized American success. For their children, the consumerism of the post-war era reached fever pitch in the 80s, the era of Wall Street and Bonfire of the Vanities.  And for their children, the latest American Dream is celebrity:  thanks to the internet and reality TV, many Americans will actually receive their fifteen minutes of fame.

What makes the American Dream change over time?  As we’ve achieved our collective aspirations to freedom, equality, and prosperity, successive generations look to stand on the shoulders of their predecessors and dream for more:  greater happiness, greater wealth, greater glory.  The result is that today, Americans don’t share a collective aspiration:  we each define our dream individually.  The world of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, with its paean to suburban prosperity, is an antiquated curiosity to many younger Americans.

There is no longer a unified face like the 1950s white, suburban couple on our television sets, and there is no longer one idea that we can call “The American Dream.”  But what we do share as Americans is that it is engrained in us to dream, and to dare to achieve those dreams.  As a nation we are unified by a hope that expands endlessly into the future.

“What makes the American Dream American is not that our dreams are any better, worse, or more interesting than anyone else’s, but that we live in a country constituted of dreams, whose very justification continues to rest on it being a place where one can, for better or worse, pursue distant goals” – Jim Cullen in his book The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation 

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