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James Truslow Adams: The American Dream

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In 1931, the historian James Truslow Adams had started the trend of the American Dream, “But there has been also the American Dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each, according to his ability or achievement (Adams via Machester).” In simple words, his definition of the American dream was a dream of hope and ambition for a highly comfortable life. And while the country came a long way in evolving, so has the value and definition of the American Dream. These modifications to the American Dream were brought about with the continuously evolving factors of the economy and culture. Originally in the early 1900’s, The American Dream was the golden goal; everyone praised …show more content…

In the 1900’s people would risk it all; they would leave everything behind and travel across the states in search of a better life. They would even put everything they had on something as small as a hunch if it meant a possible win of riches and be financially healthy enough to become a homeowner as well as carrying their wife, kids, and their aged parents the most common goal. This was the American Dream for all at this moment in time, however as the years went by the dream became more and more of a dream. James Truslow Adams had written his book on the American Dream during the time of the Great Depression. The great depression was an all-time economic low for America, according to the economist author, Micheal Bardo, due to the factors of the stock market crash of 1929 and an …show more content…

Based off of this obvious observation and statistics among unemployment and homeownership, which I have brought up earlier, Cal Thomas (FOX News representative) concluded that it does not matter how one defines the American dream because there is not much of it that's left anymore. If one were to observe America and how it slumped throughout the years, one can easily say that the American Dream’s standards of ambition, hope, and value drastically dropped to fit everyone’s situation due to the decrease in opportunities for getting to that level in today’s world, seems nearly impossible. In fact, it seems so impossible that the majority of America basically considers it as

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