American Dream, a very familiar metaphor that one heard a lot nowadays. Author, news anchor, politician, immigrant, and many other people keep stating this phrase. What does it means really? According to an article from Time Magazine, James Truslow Adams is the popular historian who made this phrase famous through his book, The Epic of America. Adams states some of the value that contained inside the American dream in which are “economic success” and the ability to “grow to fullest development as men and women, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had been erected for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class”(Adams XI).
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The first sentence that one could highlight from Adams’ definition of American dream is “being able to grow to fullest development as men and women, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had been erected for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class” (Adams XI). Danielle Allen, the professor of government at the university of Harvard introduced the same concept in her book about the Declaration of Independence, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. Allen uses a similar characterization like Adams’ statement “unrepressed by social order which had been created”(Adams XI) when she portray her view about political equality. She emphasizes that in its optimal form, “democracies empower each and all such that none can dominate any of the others, nor any one one group, another group of citizens” (Allen 34). Therefore, by the syllogism of this two coherent …show more content…
In the land of opportunity, United States, social mobility is a cross product or the result of the political equality and the economic opportunity that United States offer. Robert D. Putnam, the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University provides some facts about the social mobility in his book, Our Kids, The American dream in Crisis. In his book, Putnam states that “[the] American public educational system was created to give all kids, regardless of their family origins, a chance to improve their lot in life. The system has been substantially expanded and transformed three times during the past two centuries, and each time a core objective was leveling the playing field”(Putnam 160). “[Leveling] the playing field”, the terms that had been used to describe the equality of economic opportunity by Brooks and Watkins now is being used to show the availability of social mobility for every citizen. The use of the same terms, shows the very connection between the equal economic opportunity and the social mobility that United States
The first sentence that one could highlight from Adams’ definition of American dream is “being able to grow to fullest development as men and women, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had been erected for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class” (Adams XI). Danielle Allen, the professor of government at the university of Harvard introduced the same concept in her book about the Declaration of Independence, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. Allen uses a similar characterization like Adams’ statement “unrepressed by social order which had been created”(Adams XI) when she portray her view about political equality. She emphasizes that in its optimal form, “democracies empower each and all such that none can dominate any of the others, nor any one one group, another group of citizens” (Allen 34). Therefore, by the syllogism of this two coherent …show more content…
In the land of opportunity, United States, social mobility is a cross product or the result of the political equality and the economic opportunity that United States offer. Robert D. Putnam, the Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University provides some facts about the social mobility in his book, Our Kids, The American dream in Crisis. In his book, Putnam states that “[the] American public educational system was created to give all kids, regardless of their family origins, a chance to improve their lot in life. The system has been substantially expanded and transformed three times during the past two centuries, and each time a core objective was leveling the playing field”(Putnam 160). “[Leveling] the playing field”, the terms that had been used to describe the equality of economic opportunity by Brooks and Watkins now is being used to show the availability of social mobility for every citizen. The use of the same terms, shows the very connection between the equal economic opportunity and the social mobility that United States