American Dream

American Dream

Meanings
1. "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty...
  1. ...and the pursuit of Happiness
2. Ultimately it has meant different things for different people at different times
New Frontier
1. Most of western America was unexplored and largely uninhabited
2. People who traveled west and settled on free land were known as frontiersmen
  1. Poor people became these as it promised the chance of a better life
  2. This was their American Dream
  3. You could become your own boss and make your own fortune
3. The reality was that life was very tough for frontiersmen
4. By 1900 there was no more frontier and this created a sense of pessimism that the American Dream was dead
Great Depression
1. During the 1920s a new American Dream developed
  1. Investing in the stock market seemed to be a way of getting rich quickly
  2. The Great Depression ended this and American society became very pessimistic

Resource summary

	Created by chrishenry97 about 11 years ago