The Automobile

When the automobile and the American people met at the end of the last century, the United States was on its way to industrial leadership of the world.
Henry Ford´s introduction of assembly-line mass production reached almost 2,000,000 cars a year. This, however, was not a period of Great technological innovation, as automobiles maintained their Basic designs from the 1890s. Although improvements such as the self-starter were added, producing autos in quantity was the major innovation. Automobiles became the chief means of transportation in the United States during the 1920s.
The automobile industry produced almost unlimited positive and negative consequences: prosperity for the glass, steel, rubber, and petroleum industries, but also absolute dependence on the car; the breakdown of rural isolation, but also the disintegration of the cities; easier acess to national parks but also the erosion of their beauty through overuse.
The automobile and the Americans forged the mobile American culture. The Americans whose livelihoods were directly linked to the automobile included owners and employees of garages, service stations, auto parts stores, roadside restaurants, and the “tourist cabins” which eventually acquired sophistication and became motels. The automobile led to the formidable expansion of industries, becoming the dominant element of the American economy.

By Andreia