Answers to Student Questions Related to Their National History Day Project

Here are a few questions my group came up with. How did the Model-T's low-price challenge norms in America’s society at the time?  Was there a conflict between the higher and middle classes in America when automobiles became affordable?  Was there any serious foreign conflict as America’s automobile sales rates raised way above those in other countries? How did the other large automobile companies react/follow up to the price drop for Ford’s Model-T? Are there any details or ideas that you can share that I would never think to ask? How does the popularization of automobiles in the U.S affect our lives today? 

1) How did the Model T’s low-price challenge norms in American society at the time?

Whether the Model T or A, or subsequent models, Henry Ford’s cars did much to shape life in the twentieth century. For the farmer, county agents now made visits to even isolated farms and rendered scientific advice in an effort to improve crops and agrarian prosperity.⁸¹ The automobile was now used to distribute the mail to rural areas, thus vastly improving communications. Farm folk had access to hospitals and other medical facilities. Families no longer had to rely on crossroad stores, but could shop in towns, and even do comparison shopping. For city folk, the changes were no less dramatic. The city became reconfigured, with the rise of new suburbs, and in more recent times, exurbs. Retail trade moved from center city to suburbs, which witnessed the rise of shopping centers and supermarkets. A number of key industries burgeoned due to the demand for materials used in automobile production:  steel, glass, textiles, electronics, and rubber. Relationships within tradition of family structures changed, as youth sought freedom behind the wheel.⁶⁹ And with the Ford automobile, America became a nation on wheels. Family vacations, and trips to parks, now became far more commonplace. 

            The highway was now a place for adventure, for both men and women, as exemplified in the journals of Rose Wilder Lane and Helen Dore Boylston. The pair traveled from Paris to Albania in a Model T Ford during the mid-1920s and left a remarkable written account. As they would assert, the hero of the trip was neither one of the women, but the car itself, named Zenobia. The maroon Ford was described as “a wonder. She went up all those frightful curving mountain roads like a bird.”⁷⁰ It was an eloquent appraisal of a mass produced car whose very name implied that it was a living thing. 

2.Was there a conflict between the higher and middle classes in America when automobiles became affordable? 

Class conflict has always been a theme in American history. In the case of the automobile, there was conflict over rich auto owners who were now on rural roads, killing farm animals (especially chickens!) and trespassing. The country folk called these machines “devil wagons.” People of privilege often resent the intrusion of lower classes in their space. The automobile also changed class relations as a new class of industrialists displaced the small town elites with regards to wealth. Booth Tarkington wrote about this in his The Magnificent Ambersons (1918).  

3.Was there any serious foreign conflict as America’s automobile sales rates raised way above those in other countries? 

European nations placed high tariffs on American cars. To some degree the American companies got around it by sending over "knocked down kits,” cars not yet assembled but all the parts were there. In Germany to 1933 American cars were preferred to German cars then, and one can see many photos of Buicks, Chevrolets, and Fords, among others. After 1933 in Germany, however, Hitler made sure that tariffs were so high that domestic manufacturers could conduct business  without competition.

4. How did the other large automobile companies react/follow up to the price drop for Ford’s Model-T?

It was most difficult to match the Ford Model T price due to what we call economies of scale.  Large volume product drops prices. Some firms tried, but failed. The car was of such quality that competitors could not make a car that was so good performance and realiability-wise.

5. Any other points. to raise? 

See the first two chapters of my book, The Automobile and American Life (2009, 2018) -- copied might be available in your local library, or to purchase on Amazon.

6.  How does the popularization of automobiles in the U.S affect our lives today? 

The automobile and its related infrastructure transformed everyday life as well as our basic values. From top to bottom in American society, it created wealth and jobs. It played a crucial role in transforming Americans from producers of a limited number of goods to mass production manufacturers and consumers living in a Machine Age. It influenced, among other things, the nature and structure of the communities in which we live, how we define and value community, and the architectural styles of our homes and other living spaces. Over the course of the twentieth century, the car whetted our appetite for new things conveying status and personal attractiveness, petroleum-based energy sources, engaging action movies, primal rock-and-roll music, and high-fat fast food. 

            To characterize this complex transition is quite a challenge, but crucial in developing a general understanding of the very essence of what it means to be human in a technologically-centered Western society. Our loves, hopes, fears, ambitions, and disappointments are all somehow tied to the automobile.