Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Americans underwent a dramatic transformation in self-conception: having formerly lived as individuals or members of small communities, they now found themselves living in networks, which arose out of scientific and technological innovations. There were transportation and communication networks. There was the network of the globalized marketplace, which brought into the American home exotic goods previously affordable to only a few. There was the network of standard time, which bound together all but the most rural Americans. There was the public health movement, which joined individuals to their fellow citizens by making everyone responsible for the health of everyone else. There were social networks that joined individuals to their fellows at the municipal, state, national, and global levels. Previous histories of this era focus on alienation and dislocation that new technologies caused. This book shows that American individuals in this era were more connected to their fellow citizens than ever-but by bonds that were distinctly modern.
"Indeed, this book is best read as a sprightly survey of social and technological transformation set in an era that makes our current high-tech age seem relatively dull. America probably changed more between 1880 and 1920 than at any other time in the nation's history. Cassedy does a fine job of showing us how and why."
Boston Globe
"Cassedy and his publishers don't want your eyes glazing over at the thought that this is yet another treatise bout how Twitter and Facebook and the like are changing the world. Instead, it's a frequently engaging look at how deeply the United States was changed over the course of a couple of decades in science, medicine, technology and art, and more significantly, in how it viewed itself."
U-T San Diego
"But so well researched and argued is Cassedy's book, and such interesting new evidence does it provide, that it constitutes a seminal study in its own right . . . Cassedy's historical study provides scholars with ample food for thought and will prove fascinating to the lay history buff as well."
