CHAPTER III

 THE COURSE AND CHANGING NATURE OF UNITED STATES
 PRODUCTION AFTER 1860--AN OVERVIEW


 It is difficult to grasp completely the amount

of economic change that has occurred within the United

States in the past hundred years or the speed at which

it has taken place. Only two adult lifetimes, put end

to end, have passed since 1860, while two thousand years

separates today's man from the birth of Christ and the

power of Rome, four thousand from the strength of the

Egyptian empire, and ten or twelve thousand from the

time when men first became husbandsmen and herdsmen.

Yet, in some respects, the lives men lived in 1860, the

sorts of things they produced, and the methods by which

they produced them were as similar to ancient modes as

to those of present day.

 The economic progress of the United States since

1860 involved radically new products, machines, and

production methods as well as the production of greater

amounts of goods and services. Advances in quality, in

product types, and in production techniques complemented

increased production levels that put more of the staples

of life as well as luxuries into the hands of common

people.

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