American dream

For many immigrants, the Statue of Liberty was their first view of the United States, signifying freedom and personal liberty. The statue is an iconic symbol of the United States, and of the American Dream.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States of America in which democratic ideals are perceived as a promise of prosperity for its people. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, citizens of every rank feel that they can achieve a "better, richer, and happier life."^[1] The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence^[2] which states that "all men are created equal"^[3] and that they have "certain inalienable Rights"^[3] including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."^[3]

The American Dream has been credited with helping to build a cohesive American experience but has also been blamed for overinflated expectations.^[4] The presence of the American Dream has not historically helped the majority of minority race and lower class American citizens to gain a greater degree of social equality and influence.^[5] Instead, the American wealth structure has often been observed to sustain class differences in which well-positioned groups continue to be advantaged.^[5]

Overview

Since the early 19th century, the United States has been regarded as a "beacon" of liberty and prosperity—owing to a combination of the philosophical and ethical principles upon which its nationhood was established and its natural wealth as the most bountiful part of the New World.

The meaning of the 'American Dream' has evolved over the course of American history. While historically traced to the New World mystique—the availability of land and the continuing American expansion—the ethos today simply indicates the ability, through participation in the resonant society and culture of the United States, to bring prosperity to oneself.

America has been viewed as a land in which one's prospects in life are defined by one's talents and energy rather than by one's family wealth or political connections.

According to the Dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive an American education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of class, caste, religion, race, or ethnic group.

Origin

Historian and writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America:

He also wrote:

Later 20th and 21st centuries

In recent years, the concept of the American Dream as a national ideal has been studied by various organizations. The conclusions of these studies indicate that during the 1990s to the 2000s, a period of remarkable wealth for the U.S., an increasing number of people confess to having lost faith in the American Dream.^[2]

Cultural references

Some authors have written to critique or ridicule the concept, such as John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby about the extreme selfishness of adultery, bootlegging and social climbing sometimes associated with the American Dream, as did Sinclair Lewis in Babbitt, which satirized 20th-century materialism and conformity. Hunter S. Thompson's depicted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey Into the Heart of the American Dream a dark view of the search for the American Dream in the early 1970s after the collapse of the counter-culture movement; a vision of the cynical politics of Richard Nixon, violence, avarice, ignorance, vicious patriotism and personal alienation, endemic to American society.

Many films explore the topic of the American Dream. One such film is 1969's Easy Rider, in which characters make a pilgrimage in search of "the true America."

American comedian George Carlin said that "it's called the American Dream 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it."

See also

• Horatio Alger
• European dream
• Australian Dream
• New Zealand dream
• Arab Dream
• Self-Made Men (Frederick Douglass)
• Meritocracy
• Ellis Island

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Cullen, Jim. The American dream: a short history of an idea that shaped a nation, Oxford University Press US, 2004. ISBN 0195173252
• Johnson, Heather Beth. The American dream and the power of wealth: choosing schools and inheriting inequality in the land of opportunity, CRC Press, 2006. ISBN 0415952395