The book "Cheap Amusements: Working women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-Century New York," by Kathy Peiss focuses on the gender relations issues and by how they spent their leisure time. Most of the factors that restricted the leisure activities of the working class were the long hours of labor that they had to do to make ends meet. The common forms of family recreation were mostly free. In addition, the streets served as the center of social life and, for men, leisure was formed through activities such as baseball teams or going to a shooting gallery or a gymnasia. As well as, the saloon being a place of camaraderie for men.
Henry Ford was very famous for promoting this wonderful commodity that represented a new kind of freedom. It was a symbol of the American Dream, and everyone was striving to have the new product. “The automobile was the backbone of economic growth.” The first real automobile appeared in Middletown in 1900; however, it wasn’t until Henry Ford came around and created a mass production of automobiles that the machine that would provide easy travel would become popular. Although the automobile created such a wonderful freedom, many adults thought that it was tearing families apart. Teenagers were spending more time with their friends driving around instead of staying at home with their family.
Compared to the old values in which drinking was seen as a common action even for Presidents, during the 1920’s with the background of more education, many Americans began to question alcohol abuse. They believed that instead of being useless and drunk, with a noble experiment of prohibition, there would be more productivity in workers, less abuse, less accidents and purer lives. Many women took matters into their own hands by trying to let the effects of alcohol and drugs aware to the public. In the New York Times, Document G, the National W.C.T.U expressed their idea of using scientific background to find the effects due to alcohol and nicotine. They stressed the idea of educational campaigning rather than old approaches of temperance movements which just encouraged less drinking and were truly
The emergence of mammoth business enterprises from 1895 to 1915 led to inevitable changes in managerial attitudes, business organization, and worker roles. * The Innovative Model T In 1913, Henry Ford established a moving assembly line to mass produce his standard automobile, the Model T. By dramatically reducing the time and costs of production, Ford managed to lower prices and expand sales and profits. The passage of the Federal Roads Act in 1916 established a national highway system. * The Burgeoning Trusts Standard Oil began a national trend among American big businesses toward oligopoly by swallowing up smaller competitors. By 1909, nearly one-third of the nation's manufactured goods were produced by only one percent of the industrial companies.
His suggestions include the addition of women to the work place, the greater mobility of the nation, the changing family system and the impact on technology. I can see all these view as valid to some extent, if women go out to work they have less time to attend social groups in the evening as many spend this time doing housework, preparing for the day ahead and relaxing. The changing family system, such as fewer marriages more divorces, would have a huge impact on membership of groups, as a single parents’ free time can be completely nonexistent. America is now a more mobile nation, it has become easier to move across states and set up home again somewhere else. Its Putnam suggestion that increasing mobility has depleted social capital, as it takes time to develop roots to a new area.
Joan Lee Period 1, AP Us History 5 January 2010 Chapter 25 America Moves to the City 1865-1900 Through industrial revolutions, many Americans began to abandon their agrarian farm lives and grasp the life of the City. Not only were Americans following this trend, many Europeans begun to desert farming and search for fresh job opportunities in the cities. This instigated a prodigious increase of city dwellers and minimized the amount of farmers in the U.S. I. The Urban Frontier (pages 557-560) a.
Successes • Alphabet agencies (CCC, PWA, AAA, etc.) • Unemployment (13 million) • Banking systems (Emergency Banking Act) • Finance sector • Developing infrastructure • Agriculture (Agriculture Adjustment Act) • Relieving social distress and poverty • Workers rights and conditions • Critics • Huey Long • Father Coughlin • Francis Townsend • Only helped whites though • Blacks cueing for food • Halved the number of unemployed between 1933 and 1939 • The role of the government was changed - FEA and WPA gave people hope. • Social Security Act introduced a national system of pensions and benefits • Provisions of relief and benefits led to more citizens involved in
Another negative thing they affected was the pollution of the environment. Cars gave people the freedom to go where they needed to be and to get things done. They also helped develop new jobs. Cars were the beginning of assembly line jobs which provided a job for many people during this time. Second of the three economic and technological developments I mentioned is the refrigerator.
“Women were equally rare sights in the labour parades, though they were crucial participants in the cheering crowds.” However after Labour Day was created little changes started to take place, even in the role of women in society. The authors makes a note that “well into the twentieth century, women in Labour Day parades would normally only be seen waving safely and primly from union carriages or automobiles.” The authors were able to keep a stable argument throughout the whole article. The information given was very detailed starting with the history and reasons behind Labour Day to the gains of today. It was good that they clarified that Labour Day was not originally established on the first Monday of September. For numerous years it was demonstrations of such was celebrated during the summer.
Businessmen came to Detroit from all over the world to see the operation for themselves and to try and take Ford’s methods to use themselves. Currently the Ford Motor Company is considered the fourth largest automobile producer. with 108 plants world wide and 300,000 employees. Ford had a revenue of 146.3 billion in 2008 which was a decrease from 2007. The numbers keep continuing to plummet due to the recent economic deficit in America and earlier the gas purge in 2008.