The telephone did not radically alter American ways of life; rather, Americans used it to more vigorously pursue their characteristic ways of life.

Social Constructionism As much as people adapt their lives to the changed circumstances created by a new technology, they also adapt that technology to their lives…The telephone did not radically alter American ways of life; rather, Americans used it to more vigorously pursue their characteristic ways of life. Claude Fischer, America Calling (p. 5) Karl Marx / Structure and Agency “Human beings make their own history — but they do not make it exactly as they please. They make it from conditions [institutional structures] that are given and transmitted from the past.” Karl Marx The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1851) Institutions and Communication Revolution How can we put institutions into a story about a revolution in the conveyance of goods, information, and people, and how, as a nation, did the U.S. emerge as the world’s largest consumer of meat? •The State •The Business Firm •The Market Structure Communication Infra(structure) and Society (1850-1900) 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 —————————————————————————————————————————–Telegraph Mileage (000s) 12 56 134 291 848 1307 Railroad Mileage (000s) 9 30 53 93 167 207 Urban Population (%) 11.3 19.7 24.8 28.1 35.1 39.6 Number of Cities With Population > 10,000 62 93 168 223 363 440 62 304 565 790 Meat Packing Output ($ millions) — Communication Revolution The Cartography of Time / Space Compression Actor Groups In Communication Revolutions • Infrastructure Builders • Infrastructure Users / Consumers • Governmental Lawmakers Institutional Actors and Infrastructure • Telegraph Wires 1850: 300 Companies / 3 Technologies 1859: 1 Company / 1 Technology • Railroad Track Gauges 1860: 600 Companies / 7 Gauges 1890: 7 Companies / 1 Gauge • Time Zones 1870: 200 Local Time Zones 1883: 4 Time zones Through its laws and rule-making authority, government promoted consolidation and standardization among infrastructure builders. The Great Migration North In 1879 African Americans begin moving North in what was called the “Great Exodus.” By the 1890s, the number of African Americans moving to the Northeast and the Midwest was double that of the previous decade. Fresh Beef A Time and Distance Problem Once an animal had completed its work of converting corn to meat, its owners sought to protect its value by keeping it from losing weight on its journey to market. If time was money, so was distance and livestock owners could economize on both by increasing the speed at which living creatures moved across the landscape. In this way, the railroads preserved the energy in living flesh. Once the animals were aboard the cattle car, their only remaining journey was to the slaughterhouse. William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis

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