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

Cullen explores the American Dream of Home Ownership along with its historical roots and related structural factors, including the growing transport infrastructure in the 19th century, the rise of the automobile in the 20th century, and the importance of suburbia in American life and culture.

The US was a frontier state for much of its early history. European settlers sought to procure increasingly more land during the push westward on the continent as both a source of wealth and a place to live. Under Thomas Jefferson, Congress passed land ordinances in 1785 and 1787 that “would have a decisive impact on the future landscape of the nation, ranging from the street-and-avenue patterns of many midwestern cities to the quilt-like landscape seen from an aircraft” (139). Congress under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln made it easier for free men to claim land out west (160 acres, specifically) through the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. The government’s interest in influencing how land was acquired and developed was matched by the interest of land speculators who tried to gobble up large tracts of land from which to derive wealth.