Alan Brinkley considers the origins and development 
in the Great Depression of the idea of the American 
Dream. His aim is to inform the wide variance of 
what counts today as the American Dream by 
examining its beginnings.

    
The dream as developed during the Great Depression 
was unattainable but still widely held up to 
encourage and motivate the population. The vision 
was one of middle-class stability, prosperity, and 
security.

    
Brinkley frames his presentation with four words 
that describe how the people of the United States 
coped with and lived through the Great Depression. 
Persistence, empathy, rebellion, and community 
shape his essay.

    
Brinkley invites the reader to pursue this era 
further by analyzing evidence from popular 
literature and film.
    

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ALAN BRINKLEY is professor of history at 
Columbia University. He has previously been on the 
faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
and Harvard University. He is the author or co-author 
of six books and resides in New York City with his 
wife and daughter.


The Charles Edmondson Historical Lectures were 
established at Baylor University in 1977 by Dr. 
E. Bud Edmondson of Longview, Texas, to honor his 
father.  Each spring the History Department of 
Baylor invites a leading scholar to campus to 
deliver the Edmondson Lectures. In recent years 
Baylor has hosted such scholars as Nell Irvin 
Painter, Franklin W. Knight, Jonathan D. Spence, 
and David N. Cannadine. Many of these lectures 
are still available from the Baylor University 
Press. These lectures make excellent 
supplementary texts for the classroom.