Pursuing the American Dream: Opportunity & Exclusion over Four Centuries

by Jillson, Calvin C.

• ISBN13: 9780700613427
• ISBN10: 0700613420
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas

Summary

In theory, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the promise of America, and that ideal has become the basis of the national identity, but the reality is far more complex, as demonstrated in an exploration of the Dream's evolution and how Americans pursue it in different ways.

Author Biography

Cal Jillson is professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, where he served as Director of the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies from 1995 to 2001.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface and Acknowledgments	xi
1. The American Dream and Its Role in American History	1	(14)
2. American Dreams: The Promise of Life in the New World	15	(33)
3. The Dream Defined: The Founding Visions of Crevecoeur, Jefferson, and Hamilton	48	(35)
4. The Dream Expanded: The Democratizing Visions of Jackson and Lincoln	83	(36)
5. The Dream Threatened: Individualism in the Age of the Robber Barons	119	(38)
6. The Dream Defended: The Age of Reform from TR to FDR	157	(39)
7. '['he Dream at High Tide: Opportunity to Entitlement from Truman to LBJ	196	(35)
8. The Dream at Ebb Tide: Entitlement to Responsibility from Reagan to Clinton	231	(35)
9. The American Dream in the Twenty-First Century	266	(27)
Notes	293	(16)
Bibliography	309	(10)
Index	319