Title: American Dream - Wikipedia
Headings: American Dream
American Dream
Contents
History
19th century
20th century
Literature
American ideals
Literary commentary
Political leaders
Public opinion
Four dreams of consumerism
Other parts of the world
After World War II
Britain
Russia
China
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: The discovery of gold in California in 1849 brought in a hundred thousand men looking for their fortune overnight—and a few did find it. Thus was born the California Dream of instant success. Historian H. W. Brands noted that in the years after the Gold Rush, the California Dream spread across the nation: The old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's "Poor Richard"... of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a little at a time, year by year by year. The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, won in a twinkling by audacity and good luck. [ This] golden dream ... became a prominent part of the American psyche only after Sutter's Mill ." Historian Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893 advanced the frontier thesis, under which American democracy and the American Dream were formed by the American frontier. He stressed the process—the moving frontier line—and the impact it had on pioneers going through the process. He also stressed results; especially that American democracy was the primary result, along with egalitarianism, a lack of interest in high culture, and violence. "