The car society

• Unemployment totals remained relatively static at 5% across the entire 1920s despite job creation in the car industry
• Many poorer Americans, especially those in rural Mid-West, couldn't afford a Model T or enjoy trips due to cost and time constraints
• Effect on Social Lives

  • Increased ability to travel to tourist destinations, visit friends and family, attend sporting events
  • Easier access to new activities like cinemas and jazz clubs
  • Positive effect on many social lives but not all
• Ways the car affected society

  • Affordability led to millions being sold
  • One car to every five people in the US
  • Changed Americans' lives
• Effect on Working Lives

  • Employment opportunities in the car industry and related sectors
  • Greater flexibility in living locations
  • Mass production reducing workers' hours
  • Positive effect on many working lives but not all
• Radio helped popularize jazz

  Louis Armstrong brought this new music style to a wider audience
• The jobs that the car industry created (both directly and indirectly) were not enough to counter the decline in employment in other, traditional industries
• Greater flexibility


  They didn't have to live within walking distance of their places of work anymore
• Mass production reducing workers' hours


  From an average of 47 to 44 hours a week
• Employment opportunities


  • Found plentiful and reliable work in: ETS
  • Kile & HING
  • JOHNNY HER
  • Raw materials: eg making the steel, leather, glass, timber and rubber required
• The car industry had a positive effect on many, but not all, working lives