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Rather than acting on a “great destiny,” Americans recoil from their own sources of strength, treating abundant assets as dangerous liabilities, and responding with retrenchment and reduced enterprise.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-american-destiny-by-walter-lippmann/411735/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-american-destiny-by-walter-lippmann/411735.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Blue Pony","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-09-28",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What does Walter Lippmann identify as the core issue troubling America?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"America is troubled less by dangers or difficulties than by indecision. Americans lack clear purpose and a confident will, leading to doubt and anxious living.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"According to the essay, what caused the nation’s immediate indecision?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The essay links indecision to accumulated disappointments of the post-war era, including repeated cycles of great hope followed by major disappointment.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the essay describe Americans’ attitude toward their own resources and strengths?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Americans are portrayed as frightened by their own fertility and achievements, persuaded that their power should be contracted through withdrawal, retreat, and reduced risk rather than expansion and 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tee   \n| THE AMERICAN DESTINY  \u003Cbr>☆  \u003Cbr>☆  \u003Cbr>BY WALTER LIPPMANN  \u003Cbr>Copyright by LIFE Magazine  \u003Cbr>Reprinted by permission  \u003Cbr>1939   |\n| --- |\n\n“THE AMERICAN DESTINY”originallyappeared in the June s,I939 issue ofLIFE magazine.The publishers'per-mission to reprint it in this form ishere gratefully acknowledged.  \nO.J.ARNOLD  \nTHE AMERICAN DESTINY  \n☆   ☆  \nHERE in America are the things which else-where in the world the nations stand inarms to conquer or to defend.A people with along habit of freedom holds securely in its pos-session the space to live,a fertile soil,investedwealth,the technical arts,everything that a na-tion could need.Yet something is wanting.Andfor want of it the American people are profoundlytroubled.They know that they are not makingthe most of their opportunities.They know thatfor lack of clear purpose and a confident will theyare falling far short of what they have a right toexpect of themselves.They are not at ease in theirconsciences.They know that with such re-sources,such riches,and such power they arestalled,whereas they should be in action againstpoverty,and the stagnation of enterprise,and thecrumbling of law and civilized custom in theworld all about them.  \nThe American spirit is troubled not by thedangers,and not by the difficulties of the age,  \nbut by indecision.Considering the resources withwhich nature,and the accumulated achievementsof the past,and historic fate have endowed Amer-ica,there ought to be no question in anyone'smind about the American future.Yet in the gen-eration to which we belong,unlike any thatwent before,the American people have no visionof their own future.Lacking this,they are seizedby deep uncertainty.They are confused by theirproblems.They are oppressed by doubt.They areliving anxiously and unclearly from day to day,feeling that the strength within them is beingwasted,is throttled,is suffocated,that they arededicated to no great ends,that they have no surefaith that enlists the young.This mood will pass.But while it obsesses the American spirit,thepeople are making themselves sick with nervousindecision.  \nThe immediate cause of this indecision is,Ibelieve,the accumulated disappointments of thepost-War era.Three times in these twenty yearsthe American people have had a great hope andthree times they have been greatly disappointed.They believed with Wilson that they could helpto make a world that was safe for free men livingin peace under just laws.They believed withCoolidge and Hoover that they had arrived at a  \n☆4☆  \nNew Era of certain and advancing prosperity.They believed with Roosevelt that they were or-ganizing securely an abundant life for all the peo-ple.For the moment they are disillusioned andbelieve nothing in particular.When they are re-minded how great are their resources,how splen-did are their achievements,how decisive is theirpower in the world,they are embarrassed by theopportunities they are not using and by the chal-lenge of a high destiny to which they are not re-sponding.  \nFar from feeling inspired by the riches of theAmerican earth,the generation to which we be-long is now frightened by its fertility.It is as ifthis continent had raised up something too greatfor little men to deal with.For twenty years,under the influence of disappointed hopes,thepeople have worked themselves into a state ofmind where today their ideas and their policiesare dictated by a dread of the fertility of nature,by fear of the industry,the thrift,the inventive-ness and the enterprise of men,by alarm at theprestige and the power of the nation.The atti-tude of the American people at this moment isone of recoil from those very constituents ofgreatness which vigorous peoples have hithertoeverywhere and always struggled to obtain.  \n☆☆ THE AMERICAN DESTINY☆☆  \nThey have let themselves be persuaded that inevery phase of their activity they are threate","cbCaifTNpsr5suXf","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaifTNpsr5suXf","pdf",2229846,24,"English","# THE AMERICAN DESTINY\n## Indecision as the central problem\n## Post-war disappointments and disillusionment\n## Fear of American “fertility” and shrinking ambition","[{\"question\":\"What does Walter Lippmann identify as the core issue troubling America?\",\"answer\":\"America is troubled less by dangers or difficulties than by indecision. Americans lack clear purpose and a confident will, leading to doubt and anxious living.\"},{\"question\":\"According to the essay, what caused the nation’s immediate indecision?\",\"answer\":\"The essay links indecision to accumulated disappointments of the post-war era, including repeated cycles of great hope followed by major disappointment.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay describe Americans’ attitude toward their own resources and strengths?\",\"answer\":\"Americans are portrayed as frightened by their own fertility and achievements, persuaded that their power should be contracted through withdrawal, retreat, and reduced risk rather than expansion and action.\"}]","THE AMERICAN DESTINY - by Walter Lippmann | PDF",1790589488,37]