This week we talked at length about the second industrial revolution and how it differed and went beyond the initial effects felt from the first industrial revolution (which was for the most part centered around the textile industry). We talked about numerous things, but what interested me most were the ramifications of a growing railway system. When you really think about it, it is almost impossible to really change your perspective in weighty matters. Through the lens of sympathy one might overcome past prejudices, I suppose, but this is not really what I am talking about.
By way of clarifying, an example might help. Right now I am taking a class on religion in Native American cultures, and one thing we have discussed in there is the fact that it is futile for an individual from a Euro-Christian background to try to really grasp the fact that for Native Americans religion is tied into everyday modes of existence--it does not revolve around one supreme being, it does not involve a church, or what we might deem “worship.” Having had the doctrine of Christianity engrained in our minds over centuries, it is a difficult obstacle to overcome in trying to see religion from the natives’ point of view.
This may be an extreme example, but this is the type of difficulty in perception-shifting I am trying to get at in regards to the railroads of the second industrial revolution. The world is so big, and yet so small to us. We can read books by foreign authors translated to our own English. We have almost immediate access to world news as it is occurring. We can watch films that depict other lands. Indeed, on a whim and with a little cash, one can up and go to another country whenever.
This was not the case until breakthroughs like the railway system. We mentioned in class the fact that many people would never leave the town they were born in. I can’t even begin to imagine it. Not only to be confined to one region of your country your entire life, but to really know nothing of other ways of existing, other cultures, histories, and approaches to the world.
Overall, I would narrow it down to two things I think railroads introduced to the world: knowledge and connectivity. Knowledge was to be found in traveling to other places, in purchasing items from different types of people, in encountering new ideas, if nothing else. Connectivity was also a result, but not simply in the sense that travel was simplified. If we want to use the metaphor of Einstein’s theory, distance and time contracted. People could get farther in less time. There also emerged an opening for different classes to engage in travel and exposure to new things and ideas, as the railway allowed for cheaper travel. A last thing of significance in terms of connectivity arises in terms of capitalist ventures: producers were given an entirely new, broader audience to target with their products, and buyers were introduced to a whole new array of products to pick and choose from.
Some of this, whether we talked about it in class or not, may seem like common sense. Of course new modes of travel will introduce new things like these enumerated. The thing that is on my mind is just how different and unfathomable it is for me trying to imagine life before this. We have also talked in class about how the capitalist system that slowly grew along with industrial leaps had negative ramifications. Perhaps this is so, but, at least with this one example, I think the industrial revolution managed to completely change the way human beings lived, and I would say for the better.
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I totally agree with you. I took that same class on Native American cultures, and understand the reference and I think it's a pretty good example. One thing this makes me think about to is the way that we conceive time in comparison to the people of the 19th century. For us, we typically think of distance in terms of time; for example, Athens is about an hour and fifteen minutes from Atlanta. One does not usually think of it as 70 miles away. But people during this time were only beginning to think of time this way, thanks to the railroad. It is interesting to think about, but like you said, difficult to understand because it is so terribly different from the times in which we live now.
ReplyDeleteAn really great post. I think you are exactly correct in that it can often times be hard to cast one's mind back and really try to understand the implications and changes that new technological innovations had. For the people of the 19th century, the world was absolutely transformed. It also makes wonder how historians a century from now will view the technological changes of the past 20 years.
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