Title: The 'American Dream' Was Coined in 1931
Headings: The 'American Dream' Was Coined in 1931
The 'American Dream' Was Coined in 1931
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James Truslow Adams came up with "the American Dream" for his 1931 book, The American Epic. Adams had been born into a wealthy New York family and went into finance, where he did quite well for himself. He made enough money in the stock market by the age of 35 that he considered himself independently wealthy and decided to take on a new career in writing. Perhaps somewhat ironically, he would write The American Epic while he was in Great Britain. So how did Adams himself define the American Dream? Fundamentally it was about equal opportunity for upward mobility. Quite a dream indeed. From the book: [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.