The Rise and Fall of the American Motor Industry: Part 1 - 1900 to 1974

Join this channel to get early access to new videos a week ahead of their public release: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC8R7kmt-W14zWUcr8mymEQ/join This is a reworked and reuploaded version of the original video. Howdy! :D In a major reworking of my original video on the Malaise Era, which I felt a little unsatisfied about, I have now created this two-part series on the Rise and Fall of the American Motor Industry, with Part 1 covering the period from the foundations of the US Car Industry from its foundling years up until the end of 1974, where the future looked exceptionally bleak in the wake of the oil crisis making evident that the unsustainable practices, design and build quality of American cars could not continue if it had a hope of fighting back against the rising tide of foreign imports. However, while the Oil Crisis of 1973 might have been the rude awakening, the 1950s and 60s demonstrated that the American Dream of the US Car Industry was slowly turning into a nightmare, with emissions legislation, planned obsolescence practices and severe safety concerns also serving to queer the image of American cars being infallible bastions of the capitalist world, and it was these factors combined that would put this major part of the US economy squarely on the back foot by the mid-1970s. Chapters: 0:00 - Preamble 0:50 - The Origins of the American Motor Industry 6:10 - The Boom Years 13:13 - The Eisenhower Recession 18:05 - Planned Obsolescence 21:15 - Environmental Concerns 25:35 - Safety Issues 31:10 - Questions of Geopolitics 39:21 - The Hardest Ship to Turn 42:23 - The Oil Weapon 46:50 - Crisis 51:45 - General Motors Slides from the Top Spot 58:00 - Ford Adapts 1:02:10 - Chrysler Course-Corrects 1:08:05 - AMC Fights its Corner 1:12:15 - Conclusion All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated YouTubers. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): [email protected] The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images. If you enjoyed this video, why not leave a like, and consider subscribing for more great content coming soon. Press the Join button to get access to new videos a week ahead of schedule by becoming a channel member for just £2.99 a month! Paypal: https://paypal.me/rorymacve?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GB Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/rorymacve Thanks again, everyone, and enjoy! :D References: - Car and Driver (and their respective sources) - Hemmings (and their respective sources) - Wikipedia (and its respective references)