The 1920s: Innovations in Communication and Technology (Period 7 Topic 7) 

Henry Ford and the Automobile

• Made automobiles, the most recognizable and mass-produced being the Model T
• The assembly line: Ford’s manufacturing plant worked along a large conveyor belt that slowly transported the car from worker to worker that would each perform the same task
  • Unskilled assembly line workers replaced skill workers
  • Drove the price of cars so low that others couldn’t compete
  • Frederick Taylor’s scientific management would create the efficiency of the assembly line
• There was a demand for affordable automobiles
  • Americans owned 80% of all automobiles worldwide
  • As people’s individual mobility increased, they began settling suburban centers
  • Roads became dominant urban features

Mass Produced Consumer Goods

• Toasters, radios, and various health and beauty products and consumer appliances
• American standard of living rose
• Advertising
  • Reinforced by Sigmund Freud’s theories on human psychology
  • Advertisers learned how to promote products through ads that tapped into the subconscious of customers
  • Messed with Americans’ brains

Popular Culture

• Accomplished by communication technology including radios and the cinema
• Many Americans had radios
  • Corporations such as Westinghouse seized potential to reach mass audiences through radio broadcasting
  • Programs specifically for entertainment (ex. Amos n’ Andy Show)
• Cinema and movies spread mass culture
  • 3/4 of the American population were attending movies weekly
  • The Jazz Singer was the first movie with synchronized sound and music → end of the silent film era
• As new media spread a form of homogenized national culture, it emphasized regional cultural differences (in race, ethnicity, and region)
  • Few radio shows depicted the black experience in America
  • Black Americans felt distinct than the version of America given to them in popular culture
  • This distinction lead to the Harlem Renaissance, the growth of African American art, literature, and music
  • Rural people saw films portraying urban life

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