The American Dream

Albee's VIRGINIA WOOLF is commonly considered to be a comment or indictment of the failure of the American Dream.

History of the American Dream from the NY Times

".... the writer James Truslow Adams popularized The American Dream in 1931, in his book “The Epic of America.”

Mr. Adams emphasized ideals rather than material goods, a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” And he clarified, “It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and recognized by others for what they are.”

His achievement was an innovation in language that largely replaced the older terms “American character” and “American principles” with a forward-looking phrase that implied modesty about current success in giving respect and equal opportunity to all people. The American dream was a trajectory to a promising future, a model for the United States and for the whole world.

In the 1930s and ’40s, the term appeared occasionally in advertisements for intellectual products: plays, books and church sermons, book reviews and high-minded articles. During these years, it rarely, if ever, referred to business success or homeownership.

By 1950, shortly after World War II and the triumph against fascism, it was still about freedom and equality. In a book published in 1954, Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the United States Senate, defined the American Dream with spiritually resounding words: “Religious liberty to worship God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience and equal opportunity for all men,” he said, “are the twin pillars of the American Dream.”

The term began to be used extensively in the 1960s. It may have owed its growing power to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, in which he spoke of a vision that was “deeply rooted in the American Dream.” He said he dreamed of the disappearance of prejudice and a rise in community spirit..."

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/upshot/the-transformation-of-the-american-dream.html

Further history of the American Dream --

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/in-search-of-the-american-dream/305921/

Eleanor Roosevelt's 1961 Essay -- "What has happened to the American Dream?"

Discusses the Cold War and America's diminishing role in the international community.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1961/04/eleanor-roosevelts-american-dream/306023/