Abstract
Cal Jillson offers us an informed if very broad history of the American Dream, that “shimmering vision of a fruitful country open to all who come, learn, work, save, invest, and play by the rules.” While assuming basic constancy in the dream, Jillson divides its history into seven conventional historical periods, addressing in each four themes (social landscape, articulation of the dream, the dream in law and institution, and “faces of exclusion”). The result is a primer in American history with concepts and trends well defined, but not necessarily resulting in daring insights or dramatic conclusions. Each section takes us through the familiar history of economic conditions, population (especially immigration) trends, and, to a lesser degree, technological innovations. Jillson offers the conventional view of the contrasting visions of “small man” individualism and government action presented by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, and Alexander Hamilton, and the Whigs, respectively, before Abraham Lincoln and later the two Roosevelts combined them. In addition, he efficiently and lucidly recounts the full range of major legislation affecting economic opportunity (from tariff, bank, transportation, and corporation law to immigration, emancipation, land, and education legislation). He clearly and compactly rehearses also the legal and social restrictions on full equality of access to the American Dream in suffrage restrictions, slave laws, Indian removal acts, and even the culture of separate gender spheres. The author reviews all the important legislation of the New Deal, Great Society, and Reagan and Clinton years. He wraps up his book with a detailed analysis of the current state of the American Dream, suggesting continuing gaps in its fulfillment especially in work time and family leave, education, and immigration legislation.
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