ABSTRACT
In considering the dramatic change in the fabric of American society, this chapter concentrates upon nation-building during the colonial years. Three elements of change deserve particular attention. The first is the development of political structures formally amalgamating the colonies. The second is the pattern of informal communication transactions among the colonists. And the third is the growth of common or at least mutually compatible perceptions and attitudes in pre-Revolutionary America. The seventeenth-century American colonies existed in a state of semi-isolation, separated from one another, in many cases, by stretches of uninhabited wilderness and, more generally, by inadequate systems of intercolonial transportation and communication. The trends toward increased American community awareness and an enhanced sense of American community developed slowly, to be sure, but were well under way long before the outbreak of revolution.
