The Evolution of the American Dream

The American Dream has been a driving force in the development and success of our nation and a key motivating factor in all that we have achieved, individually and collectively. But what is the American Dream, exactly, and how has it changed over the course of America’s history? This is the question that Bob Skandalaris and Amber Clark explore in their latest book, The Evolution of the American Dream. From the dream of land and a new start in the colonial era, to the dream of political and religious freedom during the Revolutionary War, to the dream of living a life of self-reliance on the frontier or amassing a vast fortune as a captain of industry in the nineteenth century, the American Dream has constantly evolved. By the early twentieth century, it was living the good life; then during the Great Depression it took a sharp swing toward security and ensuring the comforts of a middle-class lifestyle rather than chasing a better one. As prosperity returned after World War II, the dream morphed into a house in the suburbs and a college education for one’s children, and then into a vision of a Great Society where government could cure all social ills and ensure constant upward mobility.That version of the American Dream, however, cannot last. In an era of global capitalism, the American Dream has now become the Chinese Dream, the Indian Dream, and the World Dream. People across the globe are not only taking “our” jobs, but also appropriating the dream itself—and the question is, what will that do to the American Dream for Americans? Will it force us to reinvent and redefine the dream once more, as we have done so often in the past? Or will the American Dream disappear from our shores entirely? Is the there still an authentic, achievable version of the American Dream today?