Blog #1

In my first blog I want to compare the reading assignment The Machine in the Garden with another class I’m taking this semester. The senior seminar class which I’m enrolled in is about the history of the suburbs in America. One of the main discussions we have had in the class was how the railroad and different styles of transportation effected the growth of suburbs in America. In the machine in the garden Marx discusses many writers, but Nathaniel Hawthorne and his description, while peacefully in nature one day the hearing of a train triggered a writing thought really made me compare to the seminar readings. As Marx describes many of these writers during the early 19th century had, "sensitivity to the onset of the new industrial power." This train that was heard is a metaphor for the advancement of technology and industrial power in America. A lot of these writers seemed to be influenced by this occurrence. Marx describes many of the writers to use non-direct comparisons in their writings to the growth of industrialism by such inventions as the train system. Was this change good for America? Marx gives the notion that many of these writers had an issue with the advancement that America was experiencing. In my seminar class we discussed how the suburbs would have not had such a growth if it wasn’t for the train system Things changed very quickly when the transportation system advanced. For many people they thought it was not the best thing for America at the time and they enjoyed the peaceful privacy.