The Changing American Dream

One of the more difficult history subjects to discuss with freshmen college students was the concept of an American Dream:  a national identity encompassing shared ideals such as liberty, equality, and a belief that each of us has the right and the freedom to better our lives through hard work and personal responsibility. 

Historians argue whether this ethos was born out of our Declaration of Independence (the right to a pursuit of happiness), the Constitution (secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity), or whether it was an optimistic spirit that naturally arose among pioneers as they settled a new world that was rich in resources.  However it arose, Europeans traveling in our new country noticed the spirit and frequently wrote about it in letters and journals.  

By the start of the nineteenth century, the Jeffersonian dream was that of an agrarian utopia.  While a young man might have to work and save for a few years, he could eventually move west and use the incredibly generous homesteading laws to carve a new farm out of the wilderness and begin a family.  

In Jefferson’s view, a nation of yeomen farmers was absolutely necessary to insure an honest republic, for only a truly independent man—neither indentured to nor employed by anyone—was capable of voting his own will and upholding the kind of nation that Jefferson envisioned. 

Ignoring the fact that not everyone wanted to be a farmer, this was an impractical view, even in Jefferson’s day.  While there was seemingly endless land to the West—and Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon practically doubled the land available—even the farmers depended on a nation with a diversified economy.  Still, there was a general common belief in the possibility of a fresh start, of a new chance, and of endless opportunities for anyone who tried to better himself.

Historians like Frederick Turner linked the American Dream to the concept of a frontier on which the dreamers were pioneers always pushing westward, so that the very conquest of the frontier created the American collective psyche.  To paraphrase one Virginia politician, if Americans ever arrived in Paradise, they would soon leave it to move further west.

For many, the Jeffersonian version of the American Dream would last well into the Twentieth Century (at least until the presidential candidacy of William Jennings Bryan, anyway).   Even before it died, it was slowly being replaced by a different version of the dream, as America slowly evolved from a rural to an urban nation.

As late as the American Civil War, the country’s largest manufacturer was the Baldwin Locomotive Works, with just barely over 600 employees.  Increasingly, Americans worked in some form of trade or manufacturing.  For many, while the American dream remained one of personal independence, the dream was to be realized by owing and running not just a farm, but an independent business.  

Many Americans achieved their version of the changing American dream by becoming tradesmen.  A man with a marketable skill could always find work, even if he chose to relocate.  By the end of the second World War, companies had become large, impersonal organizations, but a welder, a machinist, or an electrician had the security of knowing there were always jobs open at another corporation just down the road, if a 'change of scenery' was needed or desired.  

Slowly, the American dream changed again: instead of owning a farm, a store, or being a skilled craftsman,, it was now about financial security through hard work and the slow accumulation of property and wealth.  Realtors and banks advertised that the illusive dream was about owning a house, to be replaced shortly by a still bigger house with an attached garage holding a new car.  

Increasingly, somehow, the American Dream became more about acquiring the material possessions that accompanied success, and less about independence and personal freedom.  The American Dream was to become financially secure enough to be a consumer.  

A few decades ago, I began teaching large survey classes of American History at Enema U (a local agricultural college in Southern New Mexico).  Talking to a room filled with a hundred students, I was astonished to learn that the vast majority had never even heard of the notion of a shared ethos like the American Dream.  As the students and I discussed the idea, most of the students firmly equated the concept with successfully securing wealth.

Worse, when I asked how they planned to achieve the wealth they believed necessary, the answers given by the students were shocking.  Out of a hundred students, over a dozen answers were something along the lines of the following:

“I’m gonna win the lottery.”

“I want to marry someone rich.”

“I’m going to sue someone.”

Ignoring how scary the last answer is, all of the comments were alarming.  Almost none of the students gave the most obvious answer, “I’m going to graduate and get a good professional job using the degree I've earned.”

Which prompts me to wonder what the American Dream will become for a generation not likely to live as well as its parents.  Technology will improve, life expectancy will continue to lengthen, but most of the people born in the last few decades are unlikely to have as high a standard of living as their parents had, nor will they have the security and independence that come with it.

What kind of nation are we when we are no longer pioneers?