“The one event that
separates American history into two distinct eras is not the Civil War but the
Industrial Revolution,” wrote biographer Maury Klein in his book The Life and Legend of Jay Gould. “The shock waves of change unleashed by
industrialization affected every aspect of American life, leaving in their wake
confusion and a sense that everything had been pulled to polar extremes. Progress
spawned great wealth and immense poverty, success and scandal, materialism and
misery. Growth seemed to pull society apart at the seams, embroiling it in ugly
and often violent clashes. Prosperity brought with it problems on a scale never
before imagined. Amid this upheaval the old verities no longer seemed sure
guides to behavior, often they seemed irrelevant or inapplicable to the new
realities.”
The more things change,
eh?
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