James Truslow Adams coined the phrase “American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America, which he published in the depths of the Great Depression. Adams argued for a view of the American dream that ran counter to the materialism of his time: “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.”17
