As debates rage in state legislatures and school boards about history curriculums or critical race theory or the impact of slavery, we know that how we imagine our future has everything to do with how we remember our past. In this episode, we begin our series pulling apart the stories we have been told about the American Dream through our own multiple, honest, complicated stories of Dreaming America. We begin with our host, Amanda Henderson’s own family story. Moving West to find a better life, open space, and a land of their own, Amanda’s grandparent’s encountered hardship and built community. Their story mirrors the classic stories we have been told about pioneers and homesteaders, and there was more to that story, and there is more to our story. Begin the journey for the weeks ahead in the American Southwest with the stories we are told before we move further into the many stories we hold.

Resources to learn more:

Homestead Act of 1862 - https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/homestead-act#:~:text=The%20Homestead%20Act%2C%20enacted%20during,plot%20by%20cultivating%20the%20land. 

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Resources from the Guest:

New River (Images of America) Book, Marcy Miller

https://www.amazon.com/River-Images-America-Marcy-Miller/dp/1467115932

Land of Our Own: New River, Arizona Paperback

by Pauline Essary Grimes (Author)

"How the American Dream Has Changed Over Time." Gale Student Resources in Context, Gale, 2016. Student Resources in Context

A Brief History of the American Dream

An Essay by Sarah Churchwell, Professor at the University of London, and Author, Behold, America: The Entangled History of ‘America First’ and ‘the American Dream’