The automobile's role in American society and culture

AMERICAN HISTORY -- the SUCCESS of FORD MOTORS in the 1920s

Prior to Henry Ford's introduction of the famous Model T. Ford, automobiles were regarded by most Americans as the latest annoying toy of the ultra-wealthy with which they annoyed the comparatively less privileged classes (Evans, 2004). In 1906, the New York Times reported that automobiles had caused the deaths of more pedestrians than all of the military deaths in the Spanish-American War in 1898. At that time, literally only one in every million Americans could afford an automobile of any type (Evans, 2004).

Henry Ford revolutionized the fledgling U.S. automobile industry by devising production methods that greatly expanded the ownership appeal of automobiles to include virtually all middle class Americans who were gainfully employed (Evans, 2004). He did so primarily through two specific mechanisms: the assembly line production method and the $5.00 per day wage for his employees. As a result of his substantially lowering the production cost of the automobile, by 1914, one of every two cars on the road in the U.S. was a Model T. Ford (Evans, 2004).

By the 1920s, the affordability of Ford's products and the increasing availability of modernized paved roads and highways combined to make taking a "country drive" one of the fastest and most fashionable national pastimes in the U.S. (Nevins & Commager, 1992). The trendy new fad of driving to the still-undeveloped suburbs and many other recreational areas on weekends was fueled by the relative exclusivity of automobile transportation to the middle (and upper) class, which allowed them to escape the masses of poor at the most popular local recreation spots such as the most popular beaches and state parks (Nevins & Commager, 1992). Ironically, Ford's success in making the automobile more accessible to the middle class also resulted in the beginning of a national obsession with the automobile as much for its social connotations as for the transportation convenience it offered.