3 ms·
> A study comparing thousands of American and British census records between 1850 and 1880 showed that nearly two-thirds of American men moved across county lin
by hamandcheese 10y ago
> A study comparing thousands of American and British census records between 1850 and 1880 showed that nearly two-thirds of American men moved across county lines, while only a quarter of British men did.
Doesn't really seem like a meaningful comparison. The US is comparatively massive, with individual geographic and economic regions easily being larger than the whole of Britain.
Not to mention parts of the US were literally still being settled during that time. The frontier didn't close until 1890.
- astrodust 10y agoIn a sense US is still being settled. Populations are shifting and adjusting. The United Kingdom has had two hundred years to adapt to the effects of industrialization. The United States got in on that much later, with the majority of it happening post-WWI, and at that point the modern layout of the country had only barely been realized. As you point out the frontier was still very much a thing in the years immediately prior to that. There's still a lot of shifting within the US that you simply don't see in other countries. People are highly mobile, and cities like Austin and Atlanta have changed dramatically in character because of large-scale migration. The only country actively changing more than the US is probably China.
- pjc50 10y agoThe UK has had only about 30 years to adapt to de-industrialisation, or at least the end of mass industrial employment. There are definitely places hollowed out by it.
- cableshaft 10y agoThe US has those same places that have been hollowed out by de-industrialization. Take Detroit, for example. But there are plenty of other examples.