The expression “American Dream” is not an ancient one and has had its ups and downs. It was invented only in 1931 by the historian James Truslow Adams and caught on a bit in that decade, only to fall out of fashion in the 1940s. It owes its near-omnipresence in today’s political discourse to two periods when it was very much in fashion. In the seven years between 1963 (the year King gave his “I have a dream” speech and the first Baby Boomers left high school) and the end of the decade, its usage more than doubled. In the seven years between 1986 (the year the last Baby Boomers left college)
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