Title: The American Dream in the 1920s & 30s - Cultural History of the United States
Headings: Cultural History of the United States
The American Dream in the 1920s & 30s
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Content: The Civil War era, though a tumultuous and dark time for every American, crossed the bridge for the first time between an individual identity and the American identity. In the decades between the Revolution and Civil War, citizens of the United States very much identified themselves by state first and country second. Every man from Virginia considered himself proudly to be primarily a Virginian. With the Union restored and sectionalism weeded out of society over time, the Virginian became an American. Over the course of the next decades, Americans would again become segmented into classes divided by economic gain, racial oppression, and keeping up with the ever-changing times. The American Dream had gone from something very attainable to a distant hope. However, as is characteristic of the American character, the people remained hard-wearing and optimistic. The beginning of the 20th century brought on a shift in the American Dream like never before. The modern idea of this dream found its beginning in the 1920s and 30s, bridging the socioeconomic and cultural divides weighing so heavily on society through the economy, politics, and popular culture. The modern American Dream took the struggle between individual identity and American identity and fit them together into one ideal: