American Dream

American Dream

Type of service:                Academic Writing

Work type:         Research paper

Format:                APA

Pages:   2 pages ( 550 words, Double spaced

Academic level:                Undergrad. (yrs 1-2)

Discipline:            History

Title:      History

Number of sources:        2

Paper instructions:         

There are two essays here on the American Dream:

1. “Rethinking the American Dream” by David Kamp

2. “”What is the American Dream?: Dueling Dualities in the American Tradition” by Gus Speth.

Print out these documents and make annotations all over them, creating a mind map that guides you through their tortuous (not torturous!) arguments and empowers you to argue accurately and insightfully from them — I’ve also attached a little guide to help you sort out those dueling dualities in Speth.

Before you start reading, you might want to familiarize yourself with this exam based upon the articles, so you can hunt down your answers as you read:

1.) White and Hanson discuss the resilience, persistence, and endurance of the American Dream. Why do they feel it has staying power despite major crises like the Great Depression or our own recession? Did it demonstrate that staying power during the Trump presidency and does it continue with us today? Or has it changed? How? You need to be specific and give strong quotations and evidence from the article.

2.) Throughout his article, Gus Speth focuses on 3 dueling dualities. What are they? What does his discussion help readers understand about the American Dream or ideas of the “good life”? Give examples and details to support your discussion, along with strong quotations.

3.) David Kamp argues that the dream has changed radically from its origins (beginnings). What does he say the original intent of the dream was and what does he believe it has come to mean today?

4.) Throughout his article, Kamp discusses some of the transformations the dream has undergone. Focus on 3 of these transformations. Clarify what they are and what they added or took away from the Dream. Be specific and use examples and quotations from the article.

If a minimum word count is helpful, fully developed responses to these questions should be 2 pages. Read closely and annotate well, and you’ll find your responses come naturally — and feel free to write more if you want