Like the decade before it, the 1910s were characterized by a slow but steady modernizing trend. American society became more urban. People left rural areas for suburbs. Cities expanded thanks to the ease of travel provided by automobiles, buses, and streetcars. As American factories grew larger and more capable of producing a variety of goods, more and more Americans ceased to make clothes, food, and other household goods at home. Instead, they bought those goods from retail stores and from the growing variety of catalog retailers, such as Sears, Roebuck; L. L. Bean; and others.

Several dramatic social movements also helped reshape America in the decade. Racism grew even more intense in the South, as seen in the growing number of Jim Crow laws (which forced blacks into separate and inferior public facilities) and the increase in lynchings (illegal mob killings). By mid-decade blacks...