Rich Danker traces the history of ambition from the founding era to the Reagan presidency

Ambition Explains America: 

From Benjamin Franklin to Ronald Reagan

by Rich Danker

Rich Danker traces the history of ambition from the founding era

 to the Reagan presidency, arguing that it has been both

 a sentiment to restrain and a virtue to cultivate.

As an essential part of our character and a reason for our nation's exceptionalism, ambition in America has been portrayed both as a sentiment to be contained and a virtue to be cultivated. The first of a two-part series.
"I believe in America" are the first words of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Even in the worst times of American life, and the 1970s was one of them, Americans have had a unique faith in their country. This comes not from our government's strength or resources, but rather from our ambitious character.
Ambition weaves together several characteristics that explain America: optimism about the future, self-confidence, hard work, entrepreneurialism, and idealism. Together they form a passion that is unparalleled in any other country, and one of the core components of American exceptionalism. Ambition is ingrained in American history; it remains central to both the American experience and the American myth. America without ambition would be how Gay Talese described Frank Sinatra having a cold: like a Ferrari without fuel.
In today's essay, I trace ambition's rise and fall from popularity, and its restoration to importance, from the founding era to the Reagan presidency. Tomorrow I argue that the ambition guiding the current generation of young adults is stale, and suggest that President Obama's appeal came from his ambition to bridge ordinary goals with extraordinary ones.

The Roots of American Ambition
Of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin is most associated with ambition. At age seventeen, he ran away from his printer's apprenticeship in established Boston to livelier Philadelphia. In his new city Franklin became a savvy networker, a social organizer, and soon enough a successful printer in his own right. In midlife he retired from business for a new career in public service and science.

In his survey of the American character, Making the American Self, Daniel Walker Howe calls Franklin "one of the most famous exemplars of self-construction who ever lived.

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