How did our studies last week (Chapter 10-14) change your understanding of our essential question?

Our studies last week didn't really change my answer to how the English language has changed over time - they've simply expanded it. Now that I understand how specifically things like transportation and advertising have changed recently, I truly realize how far our society has advanced since the 1800s. What I think is most important to recognize, though, is how quickly certain things can go in and out of mainstream popularity/awareness, such as certain words, styles of writing, and products.

The first chapter mainly covered transportation - something that has dramatically changed over the years, especially since the invention of the car. Bill Bryson discusses a mode of transportation that's definitely not a big thing today - cable cars. He even says that "in 1900 [San Francisco, the only city with any more trolleys] had 110 miles of line and six hundred cars; by 1980 it had just forty cars and a little over ten miles of line" (Bryson 162). On literally the previous page, Bryson discusses popular railroad terms, including "cow catcher, jerkwater town, to featherbed, to ball the jack, to ride the rails, and to ride the gravy train" (Bryson 161). Before reading Made in America, I had not heard of a single one of those terms. So, like with cable cars, a lot of transportation terms have fallen into the abyss of archaic language. Throughout the book, Bryson establishes how much America has changed over the years, not just in language but also in culture. He doesn't just confine this idea to Chapter 10.

Chapter 10, which covers eating in America, also establishes this idea of change. While also establishing that a lot of our 'ethnic' foods really aren't so 'ethnic', Bryson also discusses old, obsolete brands. He mentions old cereal companies, of which there were at least 44, with names such as "Grip Nuts, Hello-Billo, Malt-Ho, etc." (Bryson 193). Once again, as with the railroad terms, I have not heard of a single one of these cereals. I've barely even ever heard of the food names that Bryson establishes as more mainstream throughout the chapter, such as chicken tetrazzini, Oh Henry candy bars, and Eskimo Pies, the latter two of which I have never consumed. The fact that this book, which was written in the mid-90s, establishes these seemingly-outdated foods as popular signals the change that's happened since the publication of Made in America. Chapters 12-14 all establish this same idea of change, but they just list examples rather than really establishing much new info. I can repeat what I've said about chapters 10 and 11 about the final 3 - America has really changed over time, and, hence, it has brought some terms into existence while shunning others.

That's an Eskimo Pie?