The Fallacy of the “American Dream”
A Propaganda Tool or A New Reality?
Dreams, Destiny and Pursuit of Happiness — for some or all?
Not all dreams are created equal.
The words, American Dream (coined by writer and historian James Truslow Adams in his best-selling 1931 book “Epic of America.”), have such an idealistic tone to them. Much like the words from the Declaration of Independence
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
As well as the term, Manifest Destiny, used to explain the spread of Americans across the entire US in the 19th century.
All of these tenets of the United States sound marvelous on paper. However, none of them were meant for all Americans.
When the Declaration of Independence and Manifest Destiny (around 1845) were coined, only white men could hold property. Women, Native Americans and slaves could not. By the time American Dream was coined, women had only had the right to vote for eleven years but still couldn’t hold property, and although African Americans had been given their freedom after the Civil War ended in 1865, they were still not treated as…
