The Impact of the Automobile and Its Culture in the U.S.

This paper examines how the automobile, as an important part of American culture, transformed American culture and society. Especially focusing on the 1950s, it highlights how the automobile and the automobile industry heralded and constituted the expanding grip of consumer culture in the U.S. during this period. It focuses on three major developments within the automobile industry in the 1950s that contributed to the postwar fixation of consumer culture in American society, mass production, the marketing strategy of planned obsolescence and the increase in the purchasing power of the working class that enabled mass consumption. It shows how these developments and the increasing emphasis on consumption were already present, yet failed to fully take off, during the 1920s. Then, the paper examines how automobiles helped spawn cultural and spatial transformations in America by looking at the advent of drive-in culture and mass suburbanization during the 1950s. Key words: automobile culture in the U.S., consumer culture, drive-in culture