ABSTRACT
United States biggest cities, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were provincial by European standards. This chapter explores how the United States and other societies become transformed so rapidly and so irrevocably. The reasons are technological innovation, the availability of raw materials from the New World, rising grain prices in Europe, and religious revolutions. The discussion of Americas economy among mainstream economists waxes hot but only rarely inquires into issues that combine politics and economics. As the United States emerged from the Great Depression and World War II to be the leader of the capitalist world, the possibilities for progress seemed boundless. To a much greater extent than in Europe, the government in the United States is bound to a corporate ideology and corporate goals. One of the distinguishing features of American society is that it grew up free of feudal fetters.
