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American Dream

Peter Molloy

Lucy Hetherington

American Dream: Episode 1: Plenty and Paranoia

Factual: History

Plenty and Paranoia

Episode 1

Episode 1: Plenty and Paranoia

BBC Two - American Dream, Plenty and Paranoia

Explores the 'American dream' - from the eve of WWII to the end of the Vietnam War.

Series exploring the 'American dream'. Features those who helped foster the dream, those who feel they have lived it as well as those who reject the notion.

'The American dream' - a phrase coined in 1931 that has become a national motto. It represents a unique brand of optimism that goes to the heart of what it is to be American. It is a simple phrase but a complex notion whose meaning is sustained and challenged by each generation.

After World War Two ended, Americans faced a future that seemed not only full of promise but also replete with danger. The United States emerged as the richest and most powerful nation in the world yet its safety and even its existence were widely perceived to be threatened as never before. 

This series features those who helped foster and sell the dream, those who feel they have lived it, as well as those who challenge or reject the very notion. Through rare archive and eyewitness testimony, this series explores the realities behind America's most powerful myth - from the eve of the Second World War to the end of the Vietnam War.

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

A major history series exploring the realities behind the idea of the 'American Dream'.

Using remarkable archive footage and eyewitness testimony, this major three-part series explores the realities behind the idea of the 'American Dream' from the 1940s to the 1970s.

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American Dream

Episode 1: Plenty and Paranoia

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