The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation by Jim Cullen

Review by: KAREN RHODES

Australasian Journal of American Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2 (December 2003), pp. 108-110
Published by: Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41053945 .
Accessed: 21/06/2014 20:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve
and extend access to Australasian Journal of American Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 20:16:09 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
108 AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALOF AMERICAN STUDIES

Whiteoffersa readingofclassicalandrogyny in Platoand Freud'suse ofthe

concepttogetherwithits inflections in Anglo-American feminism (Singer,
Heilbrun). She favours contradiction, finding support in Bakhtin's
hybridisationand dialogism,each of which proposesthe attractions of
movementand incompleteness.Thus, with definitions under pressure,
and femininity
'masculinity are in a constantstateof agitation'(p. 116) in
McCullers'fictionalworld,'a worldpopulatedby dwarfsand giants,mutes,
sexual deviants,and androgynes[that] is ripe for an analysis of the
grotesquethatprivilegesabnormality - thedistortedbodyand its aberrant
-
pleasures overthe pure-cutlinesof thenormal body'(p. 119).

As Gleeson-White notesin her conclusion,identityin McCullers'fiction

involvesmattersof race,class, disabilityand age as well as the issues of
desireand genderthatare thefocusof herstudy.But she presentsa very
solid case forthepositivedynamicsemphasizedby usingBakhtin'stheories
of thegrotesque.Whetheror notit is a parallelconceptof thesublime(of
thatsense of possibility)thatunderscores positivesin thisfiction,thereis
empathy in the work and, againstnarrowing versionsof the normaland
acceptable, McCullers always offers and difference
particularity as values.
In thisrespect, her fictionsupportsheterogeneity and, as Sarah Gleeson-
White'sstudydemonstrates, it is readilyamenableto post structuralreading
strategies.
BRIAN EDWARDS

TheAmericanDream:A ShortHistoryofan Idea ThatShaped a Nation.By

Jim Cullen. OxfordUniversityPress, Oxford,2003, pp. 214, $49.95
(hardcover)

A quicksearcha coupleof yearsago forsourceson the'AmericanDream'

surprisinglyrevealednotmuch,at leastrelatingto theideas I had in mind.
Most materialdealt withwhetherAmericansocietyconveyedeconomic
affluenceto Blacks, Hispanicsor women- or whatevergroupwas the
particularfocus.Nothingseemedto get at theheartof whatthe 'American
Dream' was all about.Whatdid it mean?Wheredid it come from?Why
does it hold such hypnoticpowerover mostAmericans,to the pointthat
theydisregard acceptinginsteadtheallureof theDream's promise?
reality,
JimCullen has filledthe void. He focuseson the idea of the American
Dream and thenoutlinesits historyfromthe colonial beginningsof the
UnitedStatesto contemporary Hollywoodrepresentations, in a panoramic
view stretching acrossfourhundredyears,fromcoast to coast,eventually
defining AmericanDreams.
severalinterrelated

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 20:16:09 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALOF AMERICAN STUDIES 109

In his 'Notes on Sources', Cullen says thatthebook is intendedmorefor

studentsthanfor 'professionalscholars'(p. 192), and the book's relaxed
deliveryreflects It is an easy and enjoyableread,a greatbook
thisintention.
for a weekend before a cosy fire. Cullen also eschews cumbersome
footnotesand referencing. Insteadhe provides,at the end of the book,
extensivebibliography essays for each chapter.Necessaryreferencing is
thuscombinedwithgood annotations directing readersto thesourcesmost
appropriateto thatreader's need. While some scholarsmightfind this
annoying,it seems a beneficial arrangement for students,especially
undergraduates.

Besides an introductionand conclusion,Cullendivideshis historyintosix

chapters. The firsttwo cover the colonial period: the Puritansand the
Declarationof Independence. Each of theremaining fourchaptersroughly
equates to a 50-year period. 'Upward Mobility' covers the early 19th
century;'Equality'spansthelate 19thcentury;'Home Ownership'traverses
the early20thcentury,and Cullen's contemporary vision of the Land of
Cockayne, whichhe calls 'The Coast', concludeshis treatmentof the late
20thcentury. As thesechapterheadingsattest,thisbook is interestedin the
idea of theAmericanDreamand how it has evolvedalongwiththenation.
Thoughsome scholarsmightquibblewiththe criteriaused to definethe
ideas underlyingtheDreamas it shiftsthrough history,Cullennevertheless
presentscredibleevidencein supportof his demarcations, whichcertainly
cover the standardideas whichmosthistorianshave referred to over the
courseofthe20thcentury.

Cullenillustratesabstractideas by demonstrating how theyare exemplified

in the lives of particularindividuals.Whatcould have been a ratherdry
philosophical investigationturns immediatelyinto accessible stories
revealinghow real men- well, yes,mostof themare men- embodiedthe
Dreamof theirage. Take,forinstance,ChapterThree,'Dream of theGood
Life(II): UpwardMobility'.BenjaminFranklinprovidesan excellentsegué
here,outof the18thcentury and intothe19th. The storyof upwardmobility
is thestandardHoratioAlgerone of rags to riches.Franklinmoves from
cleverapprentice through successfulpublisherto honouredstatesman.His
platitudes from Poor Richard give his goals of financialcomfort a Puritan-
like moralgrounding, showing how old ideas can evolve into new ones.
This chaptercoverstwo othermenas well: AndrewJacksonand Abraham
Lincoln. The Jackson the focus is moved westward,while Lincoln
represents Cullen's ultimateclaim aboutthedreamof UpwardMobility,a
true'log cabin to WhiteHouse' storyof a self-educated railroadlawyer
taskedwithsalvagingthatdreamforfuturegenerations:'...a new nation,
conceivedin liberty anddedicatedtotheproposition thatall menarecreated
equal.' As Franklinhad providedthebridgefroma colonialethicto thatof

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 20:16:09 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
110 AUSTRALASIAN JOURNALOF AMERICAN STUDIES

forginga new nation,so Lincolnprovidesone to the nextchapteron the

dreamofequality.

Equalityis Cullen's mostwidelyrangingtopic,includingfarmorethanthe

merefiftyyearswhichthe pertinent chapternominallycovers.Withthe
dreamof racialequality,Cullen associatesthedreamofgenderequality, but
raceis hisobviousfirstconcern.He movesfromFrederick Douglassthrough
HomerPlessy (withwhomthis chapter,fittingly forits period,begins)to
MartinLutherKingJr.,butdoesnotincludeanywomen'sstories.At leastone
fromthisperiod- perhapsSusan B. Anthony's? - mightseemrelevant.

Nor is genderequalitytheonlytopicto receivetruncated treatment.From

Columbus'sfirstsightingof the Bahamas,the UnitedStateshas always
been about the land. Ironically,Cullen mentions'manifestdestiny'but
once, and thatonly tangentially 163 pages intohis text.The land figures
prominently in thechapter on home ownership, as does a discussionon the
Jeffersonian ideal of theyeoman farmer and Lincoln's struggleto get the
HomesteadAct passed,yetCullendoes notmaketheconnectionbetween
thedreamofupwardmobility - whichis closelyinvolvedwiththedreamof
homeownership- and thedriveforconquestof land and empirebuilding
plainlyevidentin the AmericanDream's darktwin,Americanbeliefin
Manifest Destiny. For that matter,Cullen is not at his best with
Jeffersonianism, either,andforme a thorough job wouldhaveoffered more
on theimmigrant rootsof theAmericanDream.However,Cullen'sbookis,
afterall,justa 'short'history.

Cullenis at his bestin his understandingof themythicpowerof theDream

forAmericans.He saysofAmericans'allegianceto theDreamthatitis cso
ardentas to assumea kindof religiosity' (p. 160). Repeatedly, he expresses
theirbeliefin theDreamas a fervour worthy of its seeds in Protestant
faith
in reformand its blossom in 'a democracyof desire' (p.179) best
exemplified in thesimultaneousillusionand realityof Pickfair, theemblem
of his finalDreamof theCoast. In the end, Cullen understands thestrength
of theAmericanDreamto lie in itsessenceas a dream.Withinthecontext
of themomentous concludingsoliloquyof The GreatGatsby,he says that,
'... any AmericanDream is finallytoo incompletea vessel to contain
longingsthatelude humanexpressionor comprehension.We neverreach
thecoastwe thinkwe see' (p.182). TheAmericanDream is a greatbookfor
students and a solid groundingin thehistory of theideas of theDream,but,
liketheDreamitself,itdoesn'tquitereachthecoast.

KAREN RHODES
MasseyUniversity

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 20:16:09 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions