-E n conomic and social interactions in the United States have undergone a massive expansion of scale since the mid-nineteenth century. The change is apparent in the size and scope of business enterprise, government operations, and organized social movements. As Kenneth Boulding pointed out nearly forty years ago, the result has been an "organizational revolution." The relatively isolated and self-contained "island communities" described by Robert Wiebe have been encompassed by a web of national institutions, obligations, and interactions. One result has been the intensification of extra local ties and connections at the ex-