The Origins of the American Dream
Historian James Truslow Adams often receives credit for first generalize the idea of the American ambition . In his 1931 book " The Epic of America , " Adams described " thatdreamof a demesne in which living should be dependable and richer and fuller for everyone , with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement " [ source : Adams ] .
But the conception of the American dream , as Adams defined it , actually exist long before him . In 1630 , John Winthrop yield his " metropolis upon a hill " sermon to his fellowPuritancolonists as they sailed to Massachusetts in 1630 . Although Winthrop never used the word " dream , " he eloquently detail his visual modality of a society in which everyone would have a chance to prosper , as long as they all work together and succeed Biblical teachings [ source : Winthrop ] . bit by bit , that ambition of chance develop in settler ' minds into a God - given right . In the Declaration of Independence in 1776 , Thomas Jefferson verify that everyone in America – at least , those who were n’t enslaved by the colonist – was entitled to " life , shore leave and pursuit of happiness " [ generator : Jefferson ] .
As America evolve and grow throughout the 19th 100 , so did the notion that America was unlike from other countries : It was a land of unparalleled chance , where anything could be accomplish if a person make bold to dream big enough . Alexis de Tocqueville , a Frenchman who visited the new nation in the 1830s , called this belief " the charm of anticipated achiever " [ author : Cullen ] . American transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau , in his 1854 book " Walden , " say it this way : " If one advances confidently in the management of his dream , and endeavor to live the life-time he has imagined , he will gather with a success unexpected in plebeian hours " [ source : Thoreau ] .
The words " American ambition " gradually began to appear innewspaperarticles and books in the mid- to late-1800s , often in reference to hardy pioneer who manoeuver westward to assay chance , or to Europeanimmigrantswho arrived in U.S. port in lookup of sound jobs and home . By the early 20th one C , it was a euphemism for up economic mobility – the prototypical American tatter - to - rich aspiration . In Sherwood Anderson ’s 1916 novel " Windy McPherson ’s Son , " for example , the source described his champion as " an American multi - millionaire , a man in the midst of his money - making , one who had realised the American Dream " [ source : Anderson ] .
How did Americans ' vision of prosperity further evolve in the 20th century ?
