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06667_Field_TCUM T232.txt
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1996-04-10
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For an insight into the ways in which the acceleration of
wheel and road and paper rescramble population and
settlement patterns, let us glance at some instances provided
by Oscar Handlin in his study Boston’s Immigrants . In 1790, he
tells us, Boston was a compact unit with all workers and
traders living in sight of each other, so that there was no
tendency to section residential areas on a class basis: “But as
the town grew, as the outlying districts became more
accessible, the people spread out and at the same time were
localized in distinctive areas.” That one sentence capsulates
the theme of this chapter. The sentence can be generalized to
include the art of writing: “As knowledge was spread out
visually and as it became more accessible in alphabetic form, it
was localized and divided into specialties.” Up to the point just
short of electrification, increase of speed produces division of
function, and of social classes, and of knowledge.