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The American Dream: A Cultural History Lawrence R. Samuel. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2012.
A fundamental theme in American Studies, the American Dream is the belief that anybody has the chance to succeed in the United States, no matter what his or her background is. This overlooked book revisits chronologically countless definitions of the American Dream since its first occurrence in 1931, following the conceptions of various authors and thinkers, either in academic books, popular magazines, or political discourses (11). With intelligence, using an impressive amount of documentation, the author links the American Dream with a series of typical American values, writings, artworks, movies, and ideals such as hope, change, and "the belief that anything is possible" (5). The main strength of Lawrence Samuel's The American Dream is its inclusion of dozens of useful references and quotes related to the American Dream, either as an idea, an ideal, even a utopia, or a myth (106).
The first half of this rich book discusses the emergence of the American Dream, which is deeply linked with the Founding Fathers' imagination...