social interactions in the United States have undergone a massive expansion of scale since the mid-nineteenth century. The change is apparent in the size and scope of business enterprise, government operations, and organized social movements. As Kenneth Boulding pointed out nearly forty years ago, the result has been an "organizational revolution." The relatively isolated and self-contained "island communities" described by Robert Wiebe have been encompassed by a web of national institutions,

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... ligations, and interactions. One result has been the intensification of extra local ties and connections at the expense of local relationships.' Scholars interested in the elaboration of organization and the expansion of scale have given particular attention to the industrial transformation of the United States between 1870 and 1920. Understanding modernization as the interactive development of mass production, industrial cities, and bureaucracy, these scholars help us understand both the rise of the central state and the cultural process of nation-building. In detail, Carl Abbott is professor of urban studies and planning at Portland State University.