During the 1920, America was experiencing a new industrial revolution that would produce several significant inventions. Among these creations included the airplane, the radio, the television Although not invented by the Americans, the automobile would define American society and culture for the next decade. Innovators like Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds helped develop this new automobile industry by providing Americans with cheap, reliable cars.
As the automobile industry grew, several industries benefited. Cars required steel, rubber, glass, and fabrics to manufacture and as a result, all of these industry increased with the growth of the automobile. The cars at the time ran on gasoline, so the petroleum business experienced a major boom. Hundreds of oil drills popped up in the frontier. Highway construction, garages, and service stations were erected to support the industry. And with all these new growths came jobs. Thousands of jobs were created as a result of the growing industries. The automobile offered major economic value for America. However, not all businesses benefited; the railroad industry took a major hit. It lost passengers and also transportation of products to cars, buses, and trucks. The idea that "one industry's gains were another industry's gains" was further reinforced.
The American landscape was also changed as a result of the automobile. Because means of transportation before the car was by horse, the roads were mainly mud. Cars were unable to run effectively on mud, so the demand for well-paved roads and highways grew. The American government quickly met the demand and by 1930s, America was interconnected with a network of highways. Roadside advertisements also became a common sight on the American landscape. Sectionalism was reduced because interstate travel had become so easy. Boundaries between the states fell and unfortunately for the less appealing states, they lost population as more and more people left for a more attractive lifestyle.
The automobile quickly became a necessity for American households. Cars started as items of luxury, but soon became devices for transport. They symbolized freedom and equality and neighbors who didn't own a car felt pressure to buy one to keep up with the frenzy. By late 1920s, Americans owned more cars than bathtubs. The car also offered more freedom for women, who could escape dependence on men by taking a casual drive around town.
However, with the automobile came serious health risks. Accidents were very common on the roads, and by 1951, the one millionth American had been killed in a motor vehicle accident. This was more than all Americans killed on the battlefield at the time. As a result, demand for licenses and safety regulations grew. Automobiles also stimulated more crime because gangster could make quick getaways in these speedy cars. Pollution was also a problem. While the car did remove the horrendous odor of horse manure, it added new pollutants into the air. Carbon dioxide emission from cars is considered a major factor to global warming, although people at that time were unaware of such a concept. Despite these negative consequences, it cannot be denied that the automobile brought a new perspective of life to Americans, one of freedom and excitement.
Source:
"The Age of the Automobile." Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
"The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century." The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2015.
I find it very interesting how much the car changed the nation and the world. The impacts of the car on American society are huge, but the ramifications of our invention spreading to foreign markets was huge. WW2 was massively aided by the usage of the Jeep, Kubelwagen, Mercedes-Benz, Alfa Romeo, Scammell Pioneer, and so on to massively increase the deployment speed of troops. Civil wars around the world are aided by the usage of cars and trucks from Colombia to Iraq.
ReplyDeleteThe post war boom in auto manufacturing was huge as seen in Flint, Michigan and Detroit. Around the world, cars became more and more refined both before and after the war.
Although the birth of the car is accredited to a German, the first massive automobile industry popped up in America under Henry Ford's assembly line system. The car has been one of the defining technological advancements of the 20th century and the roots of its dominance are in the American assembly line.
With the invention of the automobile came the growth of the assembly line, a key component of American industry throughout the era. This is most commonly seen in Henry Ford's assembly line used to create the Model T, the ubiquitous black car that first showed the enormous efficacy and impact of using an assembly line. The idea of splitting a task into separate parts and using a divide-and-conquer strategy to maximize output became crucial to economic output with the increasing need for productive factories; even today, many factories (which admittedly use cheap labor) incorporate the assembly line model to most efficiently mass produce products.
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I really like how you explained the way in which the growth of the car industry also led to the growth of multiple other industries. The manufacture of cars was certainly one of the largest industries at the time. However, I also think that another thing you could add to the list of the negative effects of the car is that for a long time it kept the economy from becoming more diverse. Before the Great Depression the two largest industries in America were the manufacture and construction industry. As soon as those two industries collapsed, all the other industries collapsed as well. Therefore, I would like to see a more extensive analysis of how the car may have led to the largest economic depression the country has ever seen in its history.
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I enjoyed reading your blog on automobiles. For example you explained why the automobiles were effective because they gave freedom and a new form a transportation that would be more convenient for the American Homes. Along with that, you also mentioned the new problems that came along with having automobiles. I definitely think that automobiles gave many individuals freedom, and we even see it today in our everyday lives, for example many students at LAHS drive from their house to school, showing how much automobiles have grown, since having a car seems like a normal thing, while teenagers that lived during the period of the invention of cars, saw automobiles like a foreign language that they had learn and adapt to. Not only that, but automobiles now have a GPS, and have the ability to notify you when you receive a text message or a call; which is both a pro and a con since it is another factor of car crashes now in modern time.
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