Class 3 Mini-Case Study: General Motors and Ford Motor Co. Case Study Read these articles and then answer the questions at the end: First article: Extracts from “The Consumer Economy and Mass Entertainment in the 1920s” in Gilder Lehrman History Online (http://www.gliah.uh.edu). By the end of the 1920s, many of the bitter cultural tensions that had divided Americans had begun to subside, over whelmed by the rise of a modern consumer culture. The growth of exciting new opportunities to buy cars, appliances, and stylish clothing made the country's cultural conflicts seem less significant. The collapse of the new economy at the decade's end would generate economic debates as intense as the cultural conflicts of the early and mid-1920s. ……. Two automotive titans--Henry Ford and Alfred Sloan--symbolized the profound transformations that took place in American industry during the 1910s and '20s. In 1913, 50-year old Ford had revolutionized American manufacturing by introducing the automated assembly line. By using conveyor belts to bring automobile parts to workers, he reduced the assembly time for a Ford car from 12 1/2 hours in 1912 to just 1 1/2 hours in 1914. Declining produ ...
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