United States History: 1877 to the Present

Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945

USII.5

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by

a) explaining how developments in transportation (including the use of the automobile), communication, and rural electrification changed American life;
b) describing the social changes that took place, including prohibition, and the Great Migration north;
c) examining art, literature, and music from the 1920s and 1930s, emphasizing Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Georgia O’Keeffe and including the Harlem Renaissance;
d) identifying the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Begin the unit with the question how was social and economic life in the early twentieth century different from that of the late nineteenth century.
Explain that technology extended progress into all areas of American life, including neglected rural areas.
Discuss the results of improved transportation brought by affordable automobiles

Greater mobility
Creation of jobs
Growth of transportation-related industries (road construction, oil, steel, automobile)
Movement to suburban areas

Introduce the invention of the airplane

The Wright brothers

Introduce the use of the assembly line

Henry Ford

Discuss communication changes that occurred

Increased availability of telephones
Development of the radio (role of Guglielmo Marconi) and broadcast industry (role of David Sarnoff)
Development of the movies

Explain the ways electrification changed American life

Labor-saving products (e.g., washing machines, electric stoves, water pumps)
Electric lighting
Entertainment (e.g., radio)

Prior to this lesson, collect research materials on technological advances in the early twentieth century, or have students do the research in the school media center. The materials should include the inventions listed on the worksheet at Technological Advances in the Early Twentieth Century Worksheet. For the worksheet, CLICK HERE.. Students may use their textbooks to supplement the research materials.
To begin the lesson, ask students to make a list of technological advances introduced in the past 20 to 30 years (e.g., personal computers, Internet, portable CD players, cellular phones, DVD players, high-definition television, electrical cars). Write students’ answers on the board. Have students consider the positive and the negative impact these advances have had on our lives. This introduction will help set the stage for considering the technological advances of the early twentieth century.
Have students complete the Technological Advances in the Early Twentieth Century Worksheet, working either individually or in pairs. Then, have students answer questions related to their research, such as those listed below:
- What related industries have benefited from the introduction of the automobile?
- What are the reasons for the population shift from urban areas to suburban areas?
- What impact might this population shift have had on large cities?
- Which laborsaving device do you feel has had the biggest impact on people’s lives? Explain.
- Which technological advance do you feel has had the biggest impact overall? Explain.
- How have these early technological advances been improved since?
- Can any of the advances of the early twentieth century now be considered obsolete?

After students have answered these questions, discuss students’ answers as a class exercise.
As a possible follow-up assignment, have students create an advertisement for one of the early twentieth-century technological advances listed on the chart. Prompt students to include pictures and a catchy slogan. YesterdayPaper.com at http://www.yesterdaypaper.com/ offers many examples of old magazine advertisements that may help students generate ideas.
Provide students with information regarding Henry Ford’s innovative method of mass production, and discuss some of the major features of this method, i.e., division of labor, use of unskilled labor, use of interchangeable parts, and mechanization. Ask students to consider advantages of this method: for example, increased efficiency causes more products to be made in a shorter period of time; lower production costs lead to lower consumer prices and higher profit for the manufacturer. As a result of this production method, more people were able to afford the first Model Ts.
Show students a clip from the film, Modern Times — approximately the first 15 minutes of the film, showing the “Little Tramp” in the workplace. Ask students to watch for the features of mass production and to write down any examples they see. For background information and analysis of the film, see Filmsite.org at http://www.filmsite.org.
In class discussion of the film, note that the character Chaplin plays shows the impact of industrialization on society and the way machines worked to dehumanize workers. Use a t-chart to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mass production. Ask the students to identify the symbolism in this film clip (e.g., sheep compared to workers; man as part of the machine).
Prior to this session, briefly explain how production of goods changed over time. A good example is the production of shoes:
- Before the 19th century, shoemaking was the work of a master cobbler and his apprentice. The master would teach the apprentice how to make shoes. The cobbler and the apprentice made the shoe from start to finish. Ask students: Was this a quick or a time-consuming way to make shoes? Was it an interesting process for the shoemaker?
With the introduction of mechanization and the assembly line, the process was very different. The master and apprentice relationship was gone. The relationship was now employer and employee. Shoe making was no longer a special skill. Each worker simply learned his small part of the total job and repeated it over and over, e.g., cutting the leather, stitching the soles. Workers who performed some of these tasks were eventually replaced by machinery; the workers then were needed only to operate the machines. Ask: Was this a quick or a time-consuming way to make shoes? Was it an interesting process for the workers?
Introduce background information on the Wright brothers. The first time Wilbur and Orville referred to themselves as "The Wright Brothers" was when they started their own printing firm at the ages of 22 and 18. Using a damaged tombstone and buggy parts, they built a press and printed odd jobs as well as their own newspaper. In 1892, the brothers bought bicycles. They began repairing bicycles for friends, then started their own repair business. They opened up a bicycle shop in 1893, and three years later, made their own bicycles called Van Cleves and St. Clairs. While nursing Orville, who was sick with typhoid in 1896, Wilbur read about the death of a famous German glider pilot. The news led him to take an interest in flying. On May 30, 1899, he wrote to the Smithsonian Institution for information on aeronautical research. Within a few months after writing to the Smithsonian, Wilbur had read all that was written about flying. He then defined the elements of a flying machine: wings to provide lift, a power source for propulsion, and a system of control. Of all the early aviators, Wilbur alone recognized the need to control a flying machine in its three axes of motion: pitch, roll, and yaw. His solution to the problem of control was 'wing warping.' He came up with the revolutionary system by twisting an empty bicycle tube box with the ends removed. Twisting the surface of each 'wing' changed its position in relation to oncoming wind. Such changes in position would result in changes in the direction of flight. Wilbur tested his theory using a small kite, and it worked. http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/wright/
Review the development of the radio (role of Guglielmo Marconi) and broadcast industry (role of David Sarnoff). Guglielmo Marconi was born in Italy in 1874 to a rather wealthy Italian father and Irish mother. He was educated privately and then went to the Livorno Technical Institute. While there, he read an article that grabbed his attention. The article suggested the possibility of using radio waves to communicate without wires. The year was 1894, and the most modern way to send a message was over telegraph wires. (Heinrich Herz, for whom the units hertz and megahertz are named, had discovered and first produced radio waves in 1888.) Marconi jumped right on the problem. He began experimenting at his family's home near Bologna. Within a year he had sent and received signals beyond the range of vision (including over a hill) and then over increasingly great distances -- up to two miles! He took out a patent in 1896. The Italian government was not interested in Marconi's work, but the British Admiralty was, and it installed Marconi's radio equipment in some of its ships. Radio transmission was pushed to greater and greater lengths, and by 1899; Marconi had sent a signal nine miles across the Bristol Channel and 31 miles across the English Channel to France. Most people believed that the curvature of the earth would prevent sending a signal much farther than 200 miles, so when Marconi was able to transmit across the Atlantic Ocean in 1901, people were stunned. It opened the door to a rapidly developing wireless industry. Marconi continued to refine and expand upon his inventions in the next few years, and then turned toward the business aspects of his work. In 1909 he won the Nobel Prize in physics, shared with Karl Ferdinand Braun whose modifications to Marconi's transmitters significantly increased their range and usefulness. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/btmarc.html
Introduce David Sarnoff. A pioneer in radio and television, David Sarnoff was an immigrant who climbed the rungs of corporate America to head the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). David Sarnoff was born in Russia on February 27, 1891 and came to New York in 1900. He joined the American Marconi Company in 1906 and quickly rose through the ranks to become a wireless telegraph operator and later assistant chief engineer and chief inspector. When American Marconi was sold to General Electric in 1919, Sarnoff joined the newly formed Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Here, Sarnoff advocated his plans to make radio "a ‘household utility’ in the same sense as the piano or phonograph That vision came true in 1926, when RCA purchased WEAF/New York and launched the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), the first radio network in America. By 1930, Sarnoff had become president of RCA and NBC had split into two networks, the Red and the Blue. The Blue Network later became ABC Radio http://www.radiohof.org/pioneer/davidsarnoff.html

WEB SITES

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/auto.html
History of the automobile

http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,1607,7-192-29938_30240-53443--,00.html
Links to Early Automobile History

http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/wright/
History of the Wright Brothers

http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1909/marconi-bio.html
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1909

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/btmarc.html
Biography of Guglielmo Marconi

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/sarnoffdavi/sarnoffdavi.htm
David Sarnoff

http://www.radiohof.org/pioneer/davidsarnoff.html
Biography of David Sarnoff

top of page