How does the notion of the American Dream differ among WWII generation and their children who began to question their authority and cultural...

Historian James Truslow Adams (1878-1949) in his 1931
book  href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1931541337?tag=thebur01-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1931541337&adid=0TYWJBC9FYX0CVXA67XG">Epic
of America first coined the phrase "American Dream." He
states:

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"...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.”

In his
book, he began to question the efficacy of such a philosophy, and asserts that this
belief that the Founders had embraced had begun to falter by the 1930's, primarily due
to the ever-expanding government and its endless regulation.  The World War II
generation (referred to as the "Greatest Generation" in the media) appears to be the
last group that saw themselves as part of the vital American Experiment, where one could
rise to his or her own potential through one's own efforts.  Having won the war, nothing
was impossible. Ironically, the first post-WWII generation became the first generation
to witness the end of the Dream on a large scale.  World War II not only destroyed
countries and economies in the 1940's, it altered the culture of the world, but that
impact did not become apparent until the 1960's, as that first postwar generation came
of age.  Having no ties to what the antebellum world was, the young began to question
the culture they had inherited.  What they saw was not the ability to reach one's
potential, but exactly what Mr. Adams had stated that the dream was not -- obsession
with material possession and "keeping up with the Joneses."  The Dream failed because it
became not about living to one's potential, which could express that success through
material items, but only in acquiring the material possessions themselves.  This shift
in ideology was a result of the frustration individuals experienced in attempting to
live fully, but countered at every turn by an expanding totalitarian state. In short,
Americans began to see their freedoms continually erode. The 1960's thus saw the
"Generation Gap" with the WWII era parents promoting values that the postwar generation
saw to be a sham. The greatest contrast between these groups came at the culmination of
the decade in the summer of 1969, which witnessed the WWII generation achieving the
miracle of the Moon Landing, and the first postwar generation in full psychedelic
rebellion at Woodstock.