American Dream History Of The American Dream A Time Of Plenty

The American dream is the concept widely held in the United States of America, that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity (often associated with the Protestant work ethic). These were the values of the original pioneers who crossed the American plains when Europeans first came to America. What the American dream has become is a question under constant discussion.

1 History of the American dream

The origin of the American dream stems from the departure in government and economics from the models of the Old World. This allowed unprecedented freedom, especially the possibility of dramatic upward social mobility. Additionally, from the Revolutionary War well into the later half of the nineteenth century, many of America's physical resources were unclaimed and often undiscovered, allowing the possibility of coming across a fortune through relatively little, but lucky investment in land or industry. The development of the Industrial Revolution defined the mineral and land wealth which was there in abundance, contrary to the environmental riches such as huge herds of bison and diversity of forests, for the original American Indians.

Many early Americans prospectors headed west of the Rocky Mountains to buy acres of cheap land in hopes of finding deposits of gold. The American dream was a driving factor not only in the Gold Rush of the mid to late 1800s, but also in the waves of immigration throughout that century and the following.

Impoverished western Europeans escaping the Irish potato famines in Ireland, the Highland clearances in Scotland and the aftermath of Napoleon in the rest of Europe came to America to escape a poor quality of life at home. They wanted to embrace the promise of financial security and constitutional freedom they had heard existed so widely in the United States.

2 A time of plenty

Nearing the twentieth century, major industrialist personalities became the new model of the American dream, many beginning life in the humblest of conditions but later controlling enormous corporations and fortunes. Perhaps most notable here were the great American capitalists Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie ( November 25, 1835 August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist. Early life Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland into a weaver's family. In 1848 his father, who had been a Chartist, immigrated to America, and John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller ( July 8, 1839 May 23, 1937) was an American capitalist and philanthropist. He was born in Richford, New York, the second of the six children to William Avery Rockefeller ( November 13, 1810 May 11, 1906) and his wife Eliza Daviso.

This acquisition of great wealth demonstrated that if you had talent, intelligence, and a willingness to work extremely hard you were guaranteed at least moderate success as a result.

This topic was taken into grasp by the Beatles in their 1969-song "Wake up Susan".

The key difference here from the Old World societal structure is that the antiquated monarchiesFor related meanings see also Monarch (disambiguation A monarchy (from the Greek monos archein , meaning "one ruler") is a form of government that has a monarch as Head of State. The distinguishing characteristic of monarchies is that the Head of State ho of Western EuropeWestern Europe is distinguished from Central Europe and Eastern Europe by differences of history and culture rather than by geography. However, these boundaries of Europe are subject to considerable overlap and fluctuation, which makes differentiation dif and their post- feudalThis page relates to medieval Europe. Compare feudal Japan at the entry Tokugawa shogunate''. Feudalism comes from the Late Latin word feudum itself borrowed from a Germanic root fehu a commonly used term in the Middle Ages which means fief, or land held economies actively oppressed the peasant class. They also required high levels of taxation which crippled development. America, however, was built by people who were consciously free of these constraints.

There was a hope for egalitarianism. Martin Luther King invoked the American Dream in what is perhaps his most famous speech:

3 The American dream today

In the 20th century, the American dream had its challenges. The Depression caused widespread hardship during the Twenties and Thirties, and was almost a reverse of the dream for those directly affected. Racial instability did not disappear, and in some parts of the country racial violence was almost commonplace. There was concern about the undemocratic campaign known as McCarthyismMcCarthyism named after Joseph McCarthy, was a period of intense anticommunism, also known as the (second) Red Scare, which occurred in the United States from 1948 to about 1956 (or later), when the government of the United States actively persecuted the carried on against suspected Communists.

Since the end of World War II, young American families have sought to live in relative bourgeois comfort in the suburbs that they built up. The possibility of great wealth has remained more of a distant dream in the recent century, while the widely held goal of home ownership, financial security, and civil and international stability have come to take the place of the common American ,,,,dream in modern times. This was aided as a vision by the apparent winning of the Cold War.

The basic capitalistic virtues of hard work, intelligence and independence had been seen as the means to achieving this 'final' incarnation of the American dream.

The 9/11 attacks in America have put all of these achievements in a new light, and international and domestic stability is undergoing an upheaval at the present time. The sleeper is restless, but the American dream has not yet become a nightmare.

4 Criticism of the American dream

A skeptical view would say that the American dream was built on aggressive colonialism. The Civil War to promote Liberty could be seen to be undermined by the earlier displacement, dispossession and slaughter of the original inhabitants of the land: this amounts to genocide on a par with that which many immigrants came to these shores to escape. Some see parallels here with aspects of the Middle East situation today.

Other critics point out the falsity of the implied view that everyone is entitled to succeed and become successful simply because they live in America. The view, held by some, that the government should ensure equality of results, is a socialistic ideal that is a perversion of the American dream. One of the most significant characteristics of the American dream is the implied freedom that exists in America for any individual to pursue their personal dreams and the personal opportunity (but not a government guarantee) to accomplish whatever it is that they desire to accomplish. Unfortunately, the multitude of well-intentioned governmental welfare entitlement programs that continue to multiply are obvious disincentives to the commitment of hard work and time that are required to accomplish the American dream.

There is widespread criticism of America's aggressive military, economic and foreign policies, failure to ratify ecological and human rights treaties, and apparent breaches of human rights, internally, see McCarthyism and externally, in response to attacks on her territories. (See Camp X-Ray and allegations of Allied use of torture in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons). However, criticism of foreign policy is probably better leveled against the idea of Manifest Destiny.

Some would link these alleged shortcomings to original problematic features of the expansion that produced and formed the country in the first place: possibly this could be extended to the problematic situations which the original pioneers were escaping in their home countries. Could we be seeing today the echoes of ancient conflicts and struggles which the American dream has failed to resolve?

5 See also

American culture

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