Even at the height of the Crisis, civic authority laid seeds that would later blossom into vast endowments: transcontinental railroads, family-farm homesteads, and land-grant colleges. It also laid a fresh foundation for nationhood: Before Appomattox, United States had been a plural noun; afterward, it became singular. And there would be another High. Postwar generations never gave up their belief in progress, repaired the damage, and invested heavily in the future. Their hard labor, wise investment choices, and foreborne consumption were substantially responsible for the twentieth-century
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