The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6-Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 3 Summary: “Dream of the Good Life (II): Upward Mobility”

Cullen discusses the emergence and growing importance of what he calls the Dream of Upward Mobility, or the aspiration to move up in the world by achieving success along one or more dimensions (commercial, educational, career, etc.) and the belief that this success is available to anybody who works hard enough for it. The author looks at the lives of several great Americans who came from modest beginnings, including Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, to place this evolving American Dream in historical context.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) achieved early success in the newspaper business before becoming one of the first American celebrities and “a Founding Father of the American Dream” (65). Franklin adhered to the Puritan style in his writing but radically differed from the Puritans on a doctrinal level in his pragmatic belief that working hard, which brings earthly success, can be taken as a sign of God’s grace and a way to contribute to the public good. Franklin’s dream “reflected the core convictions of a great many Americans of his time” (65).

Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh US president, represents a shift in American life whereby “modest beginnings were no longer a somewhat embarrassing obstacle to be overcome but rather the indispensable bedrock of distinction” (68). Starting life in poverty and creating one’s own success through hard work became broadly respected; poverty in one’s past was a badge of honor rather than a shameful secret.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) strongly believed in the Dream of Upward Mobility, which rested on the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. This conviction was the major factor in his willingness to go to war with the southern states. While Lincoln was always uncomfortable with slavery, he was less concerned with the injustice of the slave system and more concerned with how the institution of slavery threatened to break up the Union. Slavery threatened Lincoln’s American Dream not for the obvious reason that Black slaves were excluded from pursuing the Dream, but because slavery made it nearly impossible for free white labor to compete fairly in the job marketplace and because the tensions between free states and slave states threatened the future of the US itself, which Lincoln believed was the “last, best hope of earth” (96).

Chapter 3 Analysis

It’s difficult not to approach the Dream of Upward Mobility cynically. In its 18th- and 19th-century American context, it seems impossible to separate this Dream from several brutal realities, including the continent-wide displacement of First Nations communities (to enhance the lifestyles of colonial newcomers), the disenfranchisement of women, and the existence of slavery.

Abraham Lincoln might be our best chance to recover the Dream of Upward Mobility from the disappointments of the historical record. Even with Lincoln, one must first erase the fiction that the Civil War was fought primarily to benefit slaves. Cullen makes it clear that from an ideological standpoint, Lincoln fought the war to preserve the Union and to keep the American Dream alive and, practically speaking, to improve the chances of white laborers to sell their skills in a fair market. The economic issues outweighed the moral ones in the calculation for war. The moral issue of slavery came later as a justification for it. Still, the Abraham Lincoln that the author represents in this book and Lincoln’s faith in the American Dream needn’t be discounted. The Dream of Upward Mobility was a viable dream for many white men with property in America in the 18th and 19th centuries—who certainly were a minority of the population but enough of a sample to know that the Dream could theoretically exist in an uncompromised state for some privileged people at certain times.

Cullen shows enthusiasm for the idea of redeeming the Dream and “that the purview of the Dream be expanded as widely as possible” (101), meaning that as many people from as many backgrounds as possible could viably and uncynically dream of improving their lot in life through hard work and determination. In this view, the American Dream is an ideal to aspire to and to improve upon rather than a statement of what really exists at any given time. This optimistic view must avoid the further obstacle of people using the common-sense, taken-for-granted quality of the American Dream as a reason to discount misfortune or discontinue efforts to make important structural changes in society through policymaking and activism that could enhance the ability for people to improve their own lives.