Title: Searching for the American Dream | HuffPost
Headings: Searching for the American Dream
Searching for the American Dream
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Content: But the expansion of individual rights is only half the story. Just as more groups were able to lay claim to the American dream, the dream itself was evolving. America in the years since 1945 experienced unprecedented prosperity. Not surprisingly, the American Dream became about consuming. In 1931 when Adams first coined the phrase “The American Dream” he specifically said that it was not about getting rich or acquiring goods. But by the 1950s that is what the dream had become, and what it has remained for much of our lifetimes. It is ironic that those forecasting the death of the American Dream rely on a vast array of charts, graphs and statistics. The fatal-flaw in the logic is that the American Dream is not a statistic or a trend, but a spirit. At every step in the evolution of the Dream there have been naysayers: The nation could not possibly achieve independence and defeat the world’s greatest military power?