ABSTRACT
Suppose your great-great-grandparents, who lived four generations ago, materialized in America of the present day. Surely they would first be struck by the scale and clamor of twenty-first century living. The physical speed of contemporary life would also shock them. … Yet as your ancestors learned more about how we live, they would be dazzled. Unlimited food at affordable prices …; college as the common destination of the young …; medical progress that in a century has increased the average life span (by 35 years) …; the end of backbreaking physical toil for most wage earners; the advent of instantaneous global communication and same-day travel to distant cities; home ownership for the majority. … All told, your great-great-grandparents might say modern America is the realization of Utopia.
