The U.S. Automobile Industry: Historical Overview

The story of the American auto industry is the story of its gradual development, dominance, and decline. In the late nineteenth century, there were other ways to design cars besides gas engines. There were also other countries that designed them. Through technological innovation and industrial consolidation, American automakers established their products as the world standard. Once American automakers became rich and powerful, they were able to bend both the government and social norms to create a national transportation system that magnified their power. By the late twentieth century, faced with competition from imports and increasing distaste for the car culture they created, American automakers eventually began to innovate again, but they have yet to establish the power they had during the height of American car culture of the mid-twentieth century.