The American Dream (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Jim Cullen
- First Published: 2003
- Type of Work: History
- Time of Work: 1620-2003
- Setting: The United States
- Genres: Nonfiction, History
- Subjects: Civil rights, Freedom, United States or Americans, Power, personal or social, Class conflict, Twentieth century, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Social issues, Twenty-first century, Class consciousness, American Dream, Hope, California, Eighteenth century, Seventeenth century, Home, Puritans or Puritanism
- Locales: United States
If anything but the circumstances of geography and history connects its motley population and defines the United States, it is a complex set of shared ideals and aspirations commonly referred to as the American Dream. The United States is the land of citizens who project their unattainable communal desires onto the vast continental expanse. No one can begin to understand American culture without coming to terms with the American Dream. In his compact study, however, Jim Cullen, a scholar of American popular culture, limits his ambitions, as if mocking the grandiosity of his subject....
[The entire page is 1880 words long]
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