James Truslow Adams I- Biography

He was born in a wealthy family of Brooklyn in 1878. He isn’t related to John Adams, the second president of the United States. He graduated from Polytechnic Institute of New York University and Yale University, which made him part of the elite. He worked at the New York Stock Exchange until 1912 where he decided that his savings were sufficient to quit his jobs and start writing books. He was chosen in 1919 by the U.S. delegation to attend the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He wrote several books, such as The Founding of New England, which was acclaimed by the critics. He died in 1949, member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Historical Association, and the American Philosophical Society. II- The “American Dream” in The Epic Of America

Yet, his most famous book is The Epic Of America, written in 1931. It was badly reviewed because it is considered to be too subjective. It is famous for being the first book where the notion of an “American Dream” is tackled. The quote I am going to read you is an extract form page 404, one of the last pages, of the book.
“If, as I have said, the things already listed were all we had had to contribute, America would have made no distinctive and unique gift to mankind. But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” –James Truslow Adams
Moreover, he added next