Social Science Section II: Prosperity and Technological Advancements (ACADEC '25-'26)

Who is one of the most influential figures in U.S. history through reshaping the economy?

Henry Ford

Where was Henry Ford born?

Dearborn, Michigan

When was Henry Ford born?

1863

At what age did Henry Ford move to Detroit?

28

What did Henry Ford work as in Detroit?

A mechanical engineer for an electrical company

When did Henry Ford start the Ford Motor Company?

1903

How old was Henry Ford when he started the Ford Motor Company?

40

When did Henry Ford unveil the Model T?

1908

What was the Model T’s nickname?

“Tin Lizzie”

What was the Model T?

A light-weight, utilitarian vehicle

How many cylinders were on the Model T’s internal combustion engine?

4

How much horsepower did the Model T have?

40

What was the Model T designed for?

Rugged, unpaved roads

What did the base model of the Model T lack?

Frills, windshields, heaters, or defrosters

What did one Model T owner have so that he had “an inch of eye space to see through”?

They carried a small bag of salt

What did Model T use to start the car?

A hand crank

What color was the Model T available in?

Black

Who did Henry Ford work with to design a factory in Highland Park?

Albert Kahn

What place developed “disassembly lines”?

Chicago

What was Ford’s assembly line patterned on?

The mass production of sewing machines and mobile “disassembly” lines

What did Ford’s assembly employ a network of?

Conveyor belts, chains, and cranes

What nationality was the journalist who visited Highland Park?

British

What animals did the British journalist say Highland Park sounded like?

Squirrels, monkeys, lions, pigs, elephants, and sinners

Who had more press coverage than Henry Ford?

President Calvin Coolidge

Who popularized “scientific management”?

Frederick W. Taylor

How many cars had Ford produced in 1910?

18,664

How many cars had Ford produced in 1911?

34,538

What was annual production of cars when the assembly line was introduced?

300,000

What did time to produce a car shift from and to with the introduction of an assembly line?

12 hours to 93 minutes

By what year was the Highland Park facility churning out a new car every minute of the workday?

1920

Where did Henry Ford add a second enormous complex?

River Rouge

How many cars did Henry Ford build in 1921?

1 million

What percentage of cars in the U.S. were produced by Henry Ford in 1921?

Half

How much did production increase by between 1923 and 1925?

It doubled

How many cars did Ford produce on October 31, 1925?

9,109 cars

When did Ford produce 9,109 cars in a single day?

October 31, 1925?

By what year had cars accounted for 1/10th of the U.S.’s manufactured goods?

1930

How much did cars contribute to the U.S.’s manufactured goods in 1930?

1/10th

What did automobile manufacturing spur demand for?

Steel, rubber, glass, and oil

What did Ford’s assembly line provide the technological basis for?

Radios, refrigerators, and vacuums

What is vertical integration?

A corporation seeks total control over every resource necessary to manufacture their final product

What did Ford acquire to ensure he had unfettered access to raw materials?

Iron mines and timberland in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and coal mines in Appalachia

By what year was Ford able to manufacture 26 million sq. ft. of glass for his cars?

1926

How much glass did Ford need to manufacture in 1926?

26 million sq. ft.

What did Ford purchase to facilitate the uninterrupted transport of materials to his factories?

Ford purchased a fleet of steamships and an old railroad line

What did Ford build or purchase to achieve greater energy independence?

10 hydroelectric plants

What did Ford make a failed bid on to operate?

The federal government’s massive hydroelectric dam at Muscle Shoals, Alabama

What did Ford do to secure the supply of the enormous quantities of rubber needed for car tires?

He attempted to found a utopian company town called Fordlandia next to a vast rubber plantation on the banks of the Amazon river in Brazil

Where was Fordlandia?

The banks of the Amazon river in Brazil

What was the price of the new Model T in 1909?

$825

What was the price of the new Model T in 1914?

$490

What was the price of a Model T with no options in 1925?

1925

What percentage of people in 1913 American households owned a car?

Barely 1 in 13

What percentage of people in 1920 American households owned a car?

1 in 3

How much had the amount of households that had cars increased by in the 1920s?

Nearly tripled

What percentage of people in 1930 American households owned a car?

4 of 5

How much did Ford’s employees initially make for 8 hous of work?

5 dollar daily wage

When was Ford’s five-dollar minimum wage launched?

January 5, 1914

What were most workers’ wage before Ford?

Between 2 and 3 dollars a day

How many people stood at the gates of the Ford plant the morning after he announced the 5-dollar wage?

10,000

How many new hires was Ford taking after announcing his 5-dollar minimum wage?

4,000

What were Ford’s wages increased to in 1919?

6 dollars a day

Where did workers flock to work for Ford?

Detroit

What was Detroit known as?

“Motor City”

What place in cities was Detroit in after having workers flock to it for Ford?

4th largest city in the U.S.

By what percentage had Detroit’s population grown by between 1920 to 1930?

58%

What was Detroit’s population in 1930?

1,568,622

What would the broader social vision of industrial capitalism come to be known as?

Fordism

What is welfare capitalism?

Inculcating loyalty among the workers while blunting collective bargaining and unionization

What strategies did welfare capitalism often involve?

Increased benefits for workers; company unions; sponsored social and recreational activities; health, dental, and life insurance; profit sharing and stock purchasing programs; and discounted housing

What is a famous company town that partook in welfare capitalism?

Pullman, Illinois

What company did residents of Pullman, Illinois work for?

Pullman and Southern mill workers

Whose administration constructed a government social welfare system?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

When was the governmental social welfare system constructed?

The 1930s

How many plants worked at firms with various forms of “employee representation”?

432

How many workers worked at firms with various forms of “employee representation”?

4 million

What is Chicago’s leading meatpacking firm?

Swift

What were workers often treated to during break or after hours in welfare capitalism?

Musical and theatrical performances, film screenings, and carnivals

What did union membership decline by between 1921 to 1929?

3.5 million to 2.7 million

What kind of undertones did welfare capitalism take at Ford Motor Company?

Paternalistic

What did Ford set up that enforced a code of conduct for his vast workforce?

A Sociological Department

What kind of men did Ford want?

“Sober, saving, steady, and industrious

Who did Ford send to his workers’ houses to make sure they met his moral standards?

Investigators

What courses did Ford mandate to assimilate immigrants?

English and U.S. Civics

What percentage of Ford’s workforce in 1914 were non-citizen immigrants?

2/3rds

What values did the Ford Motor Company prize?

Thrift, punctuality, and hard work

When did the official magazine of the Endicott Johnson shoe-making company publish a short poem?

1922

What did Endicott Johnson shoe-making company’s short poem instruct workers to do?

“Be Loyal to your God and Country, To your innermost self be true, But don’t forget there’s another debt, To the boss be loyal, too!”

What percentage of the nation’s roads were hard-surfaced in 1908?

6%

How many miles of asphalt were there in 1927?

3 million miles

What percentage of all roads did 27 million miles of asphalt make up?

20%

What caused the explosion in asphalt roads in 1927?

Billions of dollars in federal subsidies and revenue from the newly instituted gasoline tax

How long did it take to drive from New York to San Francisco?

2 weeks

What highway did you follow to travel from New York to San Francisco?

The Lincoln Highway

How many miles did Americans drive in 1930?

206 billion miles

What percentage increase was there with American miles between 1921 and 1930?

400%

what provided conveniences for an increasingly car-centric society?

Drive-thru restaurants, drive-in movies, and motels

What is motel a portmanteau of?

Motor hotel

According to what organization did Americans drive 206 billion miles in 1930?

The Office of Public Roads

What did a 1927 survey indicate about Americans?

Farmers were most likely among all Americans to own a car or truck