Beginning in the early 1900s with
the creation of the automobile and culminating in the late 1940s with the returning
soldiers and home ownership, American culture had grown to be decidedly
materialistic. During the first decade of the twentieth century the automobile
was becoming an important aspect of American culture. In 1910 alone 200,000
cars were made. [1] At first very expensive and therefore only available to a select
few, “sometime during the second decade of the twentieth century the automobile
became a primary article of consumption for Middle America.” [2] The automobile
quickly became important to the average American. Fords and Packards, as well
as the Oldsmobile were influencing music and songs were created touting their
names. Clothing styles were influenced as well with driving jackets, gloves,
and hats becoming chic and fashionable. The car was a status symbol, as well as
becoming a necessity to daily life, and it was just one innovation that drove
consumerism. The invention and eventual popularity of the radio and in the
1940s the television added to this collection of wants in America.
After World War II, Americans
wanted to get back to living their lives. Soldiers came home, started families,
and got back to work and seemingly ordinary life. America itself was experiencing
a good economy after the war and with the growth of suburbs home ownership
became a new dream of most Americans. Suburban style home building started
around the beginning of the twentieth century and continued on even to the
present day. The combination of living within community and with one’s own
space, but not as crowded as the city or as rural as the country had become
popular with middle class America. Owning a home was really the idea of owning
a piece of America. It created a sense of community and ownership to the
country not just the actual house. As Cullen says, “the greatest fervor
appeared to come from immigrants”, who in 1900 Detroit made up a large part of
the home owning community, and possibly doing so made them feel much more
connected to other Americans. [3] Whatever the case most all people of America
had becoming mass consumers of new products and homes, as well as appliances,
radios, clothes, and many other things.
However that being said it took
opportunistic entrepreneurs and occasionally the government to drive
materialism along. Entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford, Billy Durant, Charles
Franklin Kettering, and even Harley Earl would create car companies (Ford and
Durant), find innovative uses for new materials (Kettering), and stylistically
change the way vehicles looked (Earl) making them fashionable and stylish as
well as useful and innovative. On the government side World War II would bring
government contracts to car makers that unintentionally helped spur along
further innovation. The Jeep for example, made by Ford during World War II and
for American troops was not only a well-loved car by the soldiers, but also “became
an important utility vehicle for American farmers” after the war. [4]
In the end really everything affected
each other. Opportunistic manufacturers built innovative cars, radios, and
other goods that became popular to Americans, and also received government
contracts. Government contracts brought new innovations in vehicles as well as
standardization of roads. The newer cars and better roads got more Americans to
buy new cars and pushed their materialism. Though I feel materialism was a more
important definition of American culture during the early twentieth century,
the government as well as opportunistic individuals and entrepreneurs all drove
one another.
This website gives a simple
timeline of inventions of the twentieth century. Looking over the many things
invented between 1900 and 1950 I was amazed at how many things I don’t even
think about having to have been invented, because to me they always existed. Whatever
did children before 1903 do without Crayons? Or 1943 and the slinky?
[1] John Heitmann, The Automobile and American Life
(North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009), 19.
[2] ibid., 24.
[3] Jim Cullen, The American Dream: A Short History of an
Idea That Shaped a Nation (New York: Oxford Press, 2003), 148.
[4] John Heitmann, The Automobile and American Life
(North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009), 123.
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