This Fleeting World

62 This Fleeting World
communities transformed lifeways, beginning with patterns of employment.
Whereas most people during the agrarian world were small farmers,
today most people support themselves by wage work in a huge variety of
different occupations.
Innovations in transportation and communications have transformed
relations between communities and regions. Before the nineteenth century
no one traveled faster than the pace of a horse (or a fast sailing ship); when
President Jefferson left office in 1809, he rode home to his Virginia estate
of Monticello on horseback. The fastest way to transmit written messages
was by state-sponsored courier systems that used relays of horses. Today
messages can cross the world instantaneously, and even perishable goods
can be transported from one end of the world to another in just a few
hours or days.
Increasingly Complex and
Powerful Governments
As populations have grown and interconnections between people have
multiplied, more complex forms of regulation have become necessary,
which is why the business of government has been revolutionized. Most
premodern governments were content to manage war and taxes, leaving
their subjects to get on with their livelihoods more or less unhindered,
but the managerial tasks facing modern states are much more complex,
and they have to spend more effort in mobilizing and regulating the lives
of those they rule. The huge bureaucracies of modern states are one of
the most important by-products of the modern revolution. So, too, are
the structures of democracy, which allow governments to align their policies
more closely with the needs and capabilities of the large and varied
populations they rule. Nationalism—the close emotional and intellectual
identification of citizens with their governments—is another by-product of
these new relationships between governments and those they rule.
The growth of democracy and nationalism may suggest that modern
governments are more reluctant to impose their will by force, but in fact
they have much more administrative and coercive power than did rulers
of the agrarian era. No government of the agrarian era tried to track the
births, deaths, and incomes of all the people it ruled or to impose compulsory
schooling; yet many modern governments handle these colossal tasks
routinely. Modern states can also inflict violence more effectively and on a