HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Listerine, Consumerism, Vacuum Cleaner
HIUS 131 – Lecture 17 – The Making of Consumer Culture, 1910s-1920s
Introduction
• Middle class children learning to save money, be internally disciplined, not to drink alcohol/to
drink in moderation, sexual discipline, value hard work, self discipline
o Parents and ministers emphasizing
o Childres stories seekig to istill alues
o Production values
o Values that were compatible with early development of capitalism
• Pushback against production values by late 19th century
o Growing routinization and bureaucratization of work led many Americans to feel that their
real life was lived in leisure rather than work
• Entrepreneurs seeking to fulfill growing demand for new forms of entertainment
▪ Expansion of sports and organized entertainment showed move away from
work as place where life is lived -> growing emphasis on leisure
o Department stores pushing MC women to abandon frugality and discipline and give in to
desire
• Ex: Sister Carrie
• Stories doing everything they could to encourage MC women to spend, rather than
save their money
• Wast util s/s that osuer ulture eploded/ade its presee full ko
• By 1920s, seemed to older Americans that younger people were undergoing revolution of
manners and morals, tradition of manners and self-discipline being undermined by pleasure and
leisure which was magnified by movies (became enormously popular form of entertainment by
1910s), spending undermining value of thrift, abandoning older Victorian respect for discipline of
the body/sexuality (unacceptable interactions with opposite sex)
• Development of industry to the point at which ongoing economic expansion required more and
more consumption on the part of the American people
o People started worrying about this in 1890s, arguing that needed to get involved in colonial
exploits abroad in order to get new markets and keep American economy going
o Concern strong by 1920s
o Keeping economy growing by keeping Americans buying
o Celebrating spending over saving, gratification of desire over self-denial
• Compare to development of department stores
Automobile Industry: The Ford Plan
• American and European inventors began thinking of motorized vehicles as early as 1860, at which
time it was a kind of futuristic vision of a horseless age
• Late 19th century, inventors sought to replace horse-drawn carriages with steam-powered/gas-
powered cars
• As early as 1893 Massachusetts inventors created first combustion engine
• Europeans putting up vehicles for sale as early as 1880s
• 1895 French inventors driving vehicle from city to Paris in France -> sparking more interest in
America
o Led to develop of motor-cycle and horseless carriages
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• 1899 30 manufacturers produced 2,500 vehicles from $1,700-6,000
o Cost far more than any average family could afford
• Something like yachts today
▪ Car clubs
• Garages where they would park cars, come together and go out for ride
▪ Not used for convenience, but for UC recreation
• Didt take log for UC arket to e saturated; alread a arket for used ars ->
manufacturers wanted to make cheaper models for more average consumers
• Her Fords Model N ar sellig for $
• Model T selling for $290 1927
o Produced over 50 million
• Ford succeeded by rationalizing production through the use of (did NOT pioneer) the assembly
line
o Everyone has a particular job to do
o Repetitive, boring work
o More cars done quickly and cheaply
• Car magazines and advertisers describing cars as bringers of family closeness
o Families going out together in the car
o Eer da ithout a Ford eas lost hours of health otorig pleasure
o The Ford gies ou uliited hae to get aa ito e surroudigs eer da
o Cars as a way of enhancing leisure
• Installment buying to enable people who might not have been able to afford the whole price
• Conservative bankers distressed that people were withdrawing entire savings accounts to buy a
car
• Competitors tried to reduce prices, or offered installment payments
• Indiana woman admitting that sometimes her family went without food so that they could make
car payments
o People getting rid of savings/going into debt in order to enhance leisure
• Adertiseet: to keep Aeria goig, e ust keep Aerias orkig, ad to keep Aerias
orkig, e ust keep Aerias atig
• By 1926 3/4 of cars were purchased on time
• Aeria had ajorit of orlds ars %
• By mid-1920s automobile industry already central to health of American economy as a whole, and
depended on willingness of Americans to spend substantial amounts of money, rather than saving
• 1914 Ford instituting $5/day, 8 hour/day, 5 day/week
o $5 more than double the going rate in 1915
o Did it to retain workers in dull, assembly line work
• Recognized that work was not fulfilling
o Did it for publicity
o ‘eogized that idustr ad U“ eoo ould ollapse if orkig people didt hae
purchasing power
• Mass production requires mass consumption
o 8 hour/day meeting labor demand, helping w/boringness of job, more time to spend money
on leisure
• Bu a Ford, sae the differee-> u a Ford, sped the differee
o …soiet lies irulatio, ot ogestio
• Opposite of trickle-down economics
• Have to put money into the hands of working people, have to have spending power
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Hius 131 lecture 17 the making of consumer culture, 1910s-1920s. Automobile industry: the ford plan: american and european inventors began thinking of motorized vehicles as early as 1860, at which time it was a kind of futuristic vision of a horseless age. America: led to develop of motor-cycle and horseless carriages, 1899 30 manufacturers produced 2,500 vehicles from ,700-6,000, cost far more than any average family could afford. Lucky strike cigarette ad as a hunger suppressant featuring uc, sporty woman riding a horse. Women, work, and leisure: revolution in manners and sexual. I(cid:374)depe(cid:374)de(cid:374)(cid:272)e a(cid:374)d freedo(cid:373) that the(cid:455) did(cid:374)(cid:859)t ha(cid:448)e (cid:271)efore. Late 19th century saw expansion of co-ed land-grant/public universities. Symbolic significance of the flapper: 1920s saw the rise of new ideal of female type, of acceptable female beauty: the flapper. Importance of appearance that needed to be created using consumer products. Film stars endorsing products and making money as advertisers.
