The American Dream is a ethos of prosperity regarding the United States of America, in which the democratic ideals are translated within the American context into a benevolent view of its very purpose—that its national prosperity is founded in liberty, and that its liberty liberty can be advanced through prosperity.

In the American Dream, the goals of all people (citizens and residents) to secure a livelihood, gain an education, build friendships and family, and live free of oppression and in peace, are regarded as fundamental to the philosophy, principles, and purpose for which the United States exists.^{[citation needed]}

Since the early 19th century, the United States has been regarded as a "beacon" of liberty and prosperity—owing to a combination of the philosophical and ethical principles upon which its nationhood was established and its natural wealth as the most bountiful part of the New World.

The phrase's meaning has evolved over the course of American history. While historically traced to the New World mystique—the availability of land and the continuing American expansion—the ethos today simply indicates the ability, through participation in the resonant society and culture of the United States, to bring prosperity to all people on Earth.^{[citation needed]}

The Founding Fathers used the phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" to encompass all that is available in America. America has been viewed as a land in which one's prospects in life are defined by one's talents and energy rather than by one's family wealth or political connections.

According to the Dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive an American education and its consequent career opportunities. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the restrictions of class, caste, religion, race, or ethnic group.

Historian and writer James Truslow Adams coined the phrase "American Dream" in his 1931 book Epic of America:

The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. 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.^[1]

He also wrote:

The American Dream, that has lured tens of millions of all nations to our shores in the past century has not been a dream of material plenty, though that has doubtlessly counted heavily. It has been a dream of being able to grow to fullest development as a man and woman, unhampered by the barriers which had slowly been erected in the older civilizations, unrepressed by social orders which had developed for the benefit of classes rather than for the simple human being of any and every class.

In recent years, the concept of the American Dream as a national ideal has been studied by various organizations. The conclusions of these studies indicate that during the 1990s to the 2000s, a period of remarkable wealth for the U.S., an increasing number of people confess having lost faith in the American Dream.^[2]

Some authors have written to critique or ridicule the concept, such as John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby about the extreme selfishness of adultery, bootlegging and social climbing sometimes associated with the American Dream, as did Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, which satirized 20th-century materialism and conformity. Many films explore the topic of the American Dream. One such film is 1969's Easy Rider, in which characters make a pilgrimage in search of "the true America."

• Horatio Alger
• European dream
• Australian Dream
• New Zealand dream
• Arab Dream
• Croatian dream
• Self-Made Men (Frederick Douglass)
• Meritocracy
• Ellis Island