Examining the Impact of Automobiles in America Over time, there have been several technological advancements that have shaped the world in which we live and are familiar with today, and one advancement, in particular, that has influenced American society significantly is the automobile. Since the automobile’s beginning, it has continuously been improved and modified pushing the rest of technology to keep up with its rapid pace of innovation. Americans have frequently taken advantage of the automobile’s many benefits, but what they often fail to realize is that the automobile has given American society more than just the luxury of driving. In fact, the automobile has influenced this nation and the people within it both historically and culturally …show more content…
What most people noticed at first is the revolutionary impact that the mass production of the newly created automobile had directly on America’s economy. One can see why this is so, simply by understanding that an assembly line is a series of workers and machines in a factory “by which a succession of identical items is progressively assembled” (Dictionary.com). According to the article “Ford’s Assembly Line Starts Rolling,” the assembly line was used by flour mills, breweries, canneries and industrial bakeries, along with the disassembly of animal carcasses in Chicago’s meat-packing plants before it was ever used for the production of automobiles …show more content…
This sort of rapid growth entails exactly why the automobile has impacted many societal norms that people are familiar with in American culture. From its creation, there were sudden changes in societal structures and an increased culture relevance that rushed through American society. To begin with, the automobile was first a luxury only achieved by the wealthy. *Find a source* what a difference a few decades makes. At the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Ford proudly unveiled the latest edition of MyFord Touch, an in-car communication and entertainment system available in most of its models. An amazing technical achievement, the system can do fun things — like seamlessly integrate a smartphone or mobile media player with the vehicle’s audio system to facilitate hands-free operation.Now, we have roads to drive on everywhere, so an increase infrastructure and travel became a societal norm. Construction of roads made travel easier and faster, and in the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized the federal Interstate Highway System, which once completed, allowed citizens to take their increasingly stylish and roadworthy cars on long trips to other states or even across the country. The new normal quickly became “driving” and
The impact of the automobile between 1900 through 1945 was immense. It paved the way for a future dependency on the automobile. To paint a better picture, imagine life without an automobile. Everyday life would be dull, cumbersome, and tedious. An individual's mobility would be very limited. Basically, the life without an automobile could not be fathomed. The importance of the automobile is often taken for granite. Society may not know what appreciate the impact of the automobile and effects it has created. The impact of the automobile had both positive and negative effects on America between 1900 through 1945. Automobile provided an outlet for individuals and spread the freedom of travel among all classes of people. It also helped to introduce rural dwellers to the aspects of urban life and vice versa. One of the negative effects was that automobiles helped to put of big decline in the use of railroads. Over the course of the paper, I will try to expose the huge impact of the automobile an early twentieth century life.
In the July 1997 issue of Commentary, James Q. Wilson challenges the consensus among academia’s finest regarding the automobile in his bold article, Cars and Their Enemies. Directed towards the general public, his article discredits many of the supposed negatives of the automobile raised by experts, proves that the personal car is thriving and will continue to thrive because it meets individual preference over other means of transportation, as well as presents solutions to the social costs of cars. Wilson emphasizes that no matter what is said and done in eliminating the social costs of the automobile, experts are not going to stop campaigning against it.
Flink’s Three stages of American automobile consciousness fully express the progress of the whole automobile industry. From the first model T to the automatic production, it gives me an intuitive feeling of the automobile history from a big picture. On the other hand, Kline and Pinch focus more on a certain group of people--farmers or people who live in the rural area, they use it as an entry point to talk about automobile, alone with the role and duty transition between male and
In the 1920’s the United States economy was booming, and a famous man by the man of Henry Ford came along and had an industry changing idea. He set up the first production line style for producing automobiles. Each assembly line worker had one or two specific tasks to complete on the cars that came through. The process began with a skeleton on the car, and as it went down the line from worker to worker it slowly gained more and more pieces finishing the automobile completely...
In the twentieth century, the introduction of the motor vehicle in the United States became not only noteworthy, but also vital in the development of modern American civilization. This technologically complex machine led citizens to vast future dependence on the invention. While mobility was suddenly not limited to alternative, more convoluted options such as railroad stations or bicycles, yet copiously amplified to aid convenience and expanded leisure opportunities. From auto-racing to redesigning infrastructure, motor vehicles allowed progression, digression, and essentially uttermost change to the lifestyles of the American people. This radical idea of the automobile permeated throughout America with most, if not all, credit renowned to Henry Ford.
was a car parked in front of almost every home in the post-depression United States. In conclusion, automobile assembly line helped launch the US into the twentieth century. The. The assembly line has made a profound impact on not only the United States, but on the entire world. world.
Henry Ford revolutionized the invention of cars, and it became much more popular. More people at the time began to buy cars, and streets and traffic had to be updated and were modernized because of this. With the popularization of of the Model T cars and other automobiles came the invention of the assembly line. The assembly line was used to create the Model T, and many other products by Ford himself. The assembly line helps in putting together large products with many tiny pieces in a small amount of time. Working in an assembly line may not be the most “fun” job, but it definitely helped the production of said product. And with an easier and faster production comes a lower priced product. And with lower priced product comes more eager customers. And that is why the car became so
... The "Automobile". American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al.
In the real world, life has its ups and downs. In the 1920's, corporations started to take better care of their workers than they had in the past. Workers were paid higher wages and worked shorter hours. With more time and money on their hands, workers turned into consumers, which caused an increase in the production of consumer goods. One of the most popular consumer goods was the automobile. To keep up with the high demand, the automobile industry had to create a way to make a lot of cars in a short amount of time, at a low price. The solution was the assembly line. With the assembly line the time to create one car dropped from 12 hours to 90 minutes. The price of the automobile fell greatly also, which further increased the demand. The automobile industry inspired other industries to form, such as the steel, rubber, petroleum, machine tools, and road building industries. But life wasn't just peaches and cream in the 1920's. Immigrants and farmers were facing some serious adversity. After World War I, the United States began to put a cap, or put a quota, on how many immigrants could come into the country.
Automobiles play an essential role in American society. As if being the major means of transportation was not impressive enough, automotives can be seen on T.V., in movies, in magazines, and can sometimes be indicative of a person’s wealth and social status. On average, Americans drive nearly 40 miles and drive for just over 50 minutes driving per person per day (http://www.bts.gov). That means a person spends roughly one-sixteenth of a day driving. It would make sense, then, to make such an essential part of society as efficient, cost effective, and clean as possible. However, that is not the case. As the years have passed cars have actually begun to move away from efficiency. Hawken writes, “[The automobile] design process has made cars ever heavier, more complex, and usually costlier. These are all unmistakable signs that automaking has beco...
It is easily recognizable that the automobile culture has grown substantially since the discovery of automobiles and creation of the Model T in the 1950s by Henry Ford. Automobiles have revolutionized over the years increasing in horsepower and other specs as time progressed. (James) The automobile ended rural isolation and brought urban amenities—most important, better medical care and schools—to rural America (Foner and Garraty, 1991).
Henry Ford's assembly line in Detroit was the largest one in the country. When Ford first started making cars, the only car he made was a black Model-T. Almost everybody in the United States had a car. Three-out-of-four families owned one or more cars. With the assembly line they made a lot more cars in one day than they did before. Instead of payin...
The automobile industry was the reason behind the mass production of materials needed to construct a vehicle and new roads, by using the assembly line method brought about by Henry Ford. After seeing how successful the automobile industry was doing, it lead to an increase in motor related occupations like insurance, agents, and gas stations. Then, as the concept of sub-urbanizing occurred to many, the development of schools, commercial constructions, hospitals and other attractions grew enormously (Faue). As the automobile sales prompted many new industries for the need of common goods, the life of an American was changing quickly and even more jobs opened up. This domino effect that arose from automobiles was innovating America and brought more choices to the common person since he or she is opened to such vast markets. Ultimately, the automobile started a chain reaction that resulted in numerous new companies opening for business, which fueled the US economy. Ergo, the concept of consumerism grew where people decided what they want to buy, and that economic shift is what lead to the bloom of the US economy in the
...hing, more prominent than the effect on the farms. The automobile has radically changed city life by accelerating the outward expansion of population into the suburbs. The suburban trend is emphasized by the fact that highway transportation encourages business and industry to move outward to sites where land is cheaper, where access by car and truck is easier than in crowded cities, and where space is available for their one or two story structures. Better roads were constructed, which further increased travel throughout the nation. As with other automobile-related phenomena, the trend is most noticeable in the United States but is rapidly appearing elsewhere in the world.
Wachs, Martin. "The Automobile and Gender: an Historical Perspective." University of Califonia Journal. Proquest. Richter Library, Miami.