Title: American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality : NPR
Headings: American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality
American Dreams: Then And Now
American Dream Faces Harsh New Reality
Uniquely American
A Long History Of Optimism
Around the Nation
We Want To Know: What Is Your American Dream?
Skepticism Grows

Content: "I wasn't smart enough to go to college, so I wanted to get a steady job with decent pay," he says. " With my overtime I was able to buy a house, take trips to Europe and visit relatives there. I don't think a young person — woman or man — coming out of high school now could ever achieve that." This sense that the contract is threatened intrigued political scientist John Kenneth White of Catholic University. " We have a lack of confidence by many Americans in the future of the country," says White, who edited a collection of essays called The American Dream in the 21st Century. This crisis of confidence is not just because the economy is bad. In fact, the American Dream flowered at a time when the economy was at its worst. "If you go back to the Great Depression where the American Dream originated as a concept, strikingly enough, there was still hope and optimism about the future," White says. A Long History Of Optimism
In 1931, author James Adam wrote a book with the working title The American Dream. Ultimately it was retitled The Epic of America.