• Pastoral means farmland, not wilderness--the US was formed with an economy of farms, trade, mills (manufacturing that served a local market)
  
• The US had a self-image as a nation of farms
  
• the railroad creates a national market
  
• this makes possible much larger businesses, more impersonal, more just out to make money
  
• industrialization was not only growing but big companies and the robber barons also had more political power

Canals and railroads did spur economic growth, but...

• used laborers who were less responsible citizens and seen as undesirable
• where railroads had a monopoly they also charged unfairly high rates
• sparks caused fires along the tracks
• shoddy construction caused accidents
• in 1916 railroads were using 20-25% of timber production

1883 Standard Time: before that each town used the point where the sun was highest to set its clocks, or standardized its time to a nearby city

• Greenville would be 9 minutes behind Charleston and 33 minutes behind New York City
• the railroads needed a time zone system
• first proposed by a Canadian engineer, an international meeting standardized a system in 1884
• change from an agricultural to an industrial society
  

As the railroad declined in importance it first saw criticism and then nostalgia