Adams and the American Dream

https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/psbib:@field(SUBJ+@od1(Clothing+and+dress++fraternal+organization))
Nebraska State Historical Society

This is an image taken in Ansley, Nebraska. It is an image of Modern Woodmen of America, a fraternal organisation founded in the 1883. As a fraternal benefit society, Modern Woodmen of America is an organisation that was established in order to provide mutual aid, one of the most common being insurance. This image shows the membership of this group from a small area and as members they work together in society providing each other with benefits and aid. It illustrates Adams' ideas on the American Dream. Adams argues that the American Dream is not about money and material possessions, rather it is about functioning well in a society and fulfilling your potential. The men in the image are an example of how small communities can function and work in harmony in order to achieve their potential. My becoming members of the Modern Woodmen of America, these men provide each other with mutual benefits such as insurance, real estate, bookkeeping classes and practicing law. This allowed them to improve their lives and function well as a community as a whole by working together. The organisation still exists today with a focus on the insurance side of things. It has over 750,000 members that predominantly come from Midwestern states. Many insurance companies, banks and mutual finance groups can trace their heritage back to this organisations that were established in order to offer benefits and aid to its members in order to allow communities to flourish. They are an evolved version of these groups and offer services to customers in order to allow communities today to live up to their potential.