James Truslow Adams (October 18, 1878 –
May 18, 1949) was an American writer and historian.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Adams took his bachelor's degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1898, and a masters from Yale University in 1900. Thereafter, he entered investment banking, being in the employ of a
New York Stock Exchange member firm until 1912.
In 1917, he served with Colonel House on President
Wilson's commission to prepare data for the Paris Peace Conference.
By 1918, he was a Captain in the Military Intelligence division of the General Staff,
US Army. By late 1918, he was selected for the US delegation to the Paris Peace
Conference.
It is not clear how Adams supported himself after the war except by writing.
During his life he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters serving as both chancellor and treasurer of that organization. He was also a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, American
Historical Association, and the American Philosophical Society.
Among British societies he was honored as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
It is believed that Adams coined the term "American Dream" in his 1931 book The
Epic of America. But Truslow's coinage of the phrase had an entirely different (and much broader) meaning than what it has
come to mean today.
The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with
opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret
adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages
merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they
are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or
position."
Adams lived in Southport, Connecticut, and died May
18, 1949.
Bibliography
- Full text available at Google Books
- Revolutionary New England (1923)
- New England in the Republic (1926)
- Provincial Society (1690-1763) (1927)
- Our Business Civization (1929)
- The Adams Family (1930)
- The Epic of America (1931). Simon Publications 2001 paperback: ISBN 1-931541-33-7
- The March of Democracy (2 vols. 1932-1933)
- Justice Without (1933)
- Henry Adams (1933)
He wrote 21 monographs between 1916 and 1945. He was also editor in chief of the Dictionary of American History, The
Atlas of American History, and other volumes.
Sources
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