According to Oxford graduate and investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, fast food stands began to appear in the 1920s "with a handful of modest hot stands -dogs and hamburgers in Southern California” (3). Yet their rapid explosion did not occur until the 1950s. Several factors contributed to this growth of fast food, including America's love of the automobile, the construction of a highway system, the suburban development and the baby boom after World War II. In their article "Postwar America at Home, 1945-1960," historians Gary B. Nash and his colleagues observe that "the postwar period of the 1950s was one of the most prosperous American history; it was fueled by wartime economies, favorable trade conditions favored by governments at all levels, and federal dollars in the form of the GI Bill, defense spending, and highway construction. The construction of new highways leads to the construction of more automobiles. With a growing population due to the baby boom, housing became limited. The problem of limited housing was solved by the GI Bill, allowing families to obtain loans to build new homes. As more remote areas became more accessible to cars and highways, suburban communities were able to grow. Finally, life in suburban communities meant relying on automobiles to get anywhere. Car culture exploded and life became focused on the automobile. The high demand for automobiles has forced automakers to find a way to produce a large quantity of cars in small quantities and at a price that families can afford. Henry Ford solved this problem in 1913 with the creation of the assembly line. According to Karen Bradley Cain, a writer for the Cobblestone history magazine, "Ford ...... middle of paper ...... gain, and in turn an increase in the prevalence of the disease." Works Cited American Heart Association. “Obesity Information.” American Heart Association. American Heart Association, April 22, 2011. Web. May 3, 2011. Cain, Karen Bradley. “THE FORD ASSEMBLY LINE.” Cobblestone 31.5 (2010): 29. MasterFILE Premier. Internet. May 1, 2011. Holt, Jennifer. “The ideal woman.” Stanislaus of California State University. California State University Stanislaus, February 18, 2011. Web. May 1, 2011. Nash, Gary B. et al. “Postwar America at Home, 1945-1960.” The American People Companion website. Pearson Education, 2010. Web. May 1, 2011. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the dark side of the American meal. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2001. Print. Welch, RW and PC Mitchell. “Agri-food: a century of change. » British Medical Bulletin 56.1 (2000): 1-17. Internet. May 1 2011.