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I agree with the other responses that mention that one's point of view makes a big difference.
The idea of living in a simpler time is very appealing to me.
In some ways, the times were harder. More people died from diseases that are easily cured now thanks to penicillin and advanced medical techniques. Work was more physical and harder, but I think there was a much greater sense of satisfaction and pride in a job well done than there is now.
The biggest difference, IMHO even moreso than medicine was that the food was so much better then. Fresh, non-GMO veggies and fruit. Maybe not as much selection, but much better for you. No fast food, no prepackaged junk, no aspartame.
It's really difficult to compare modern day with that era. They are so different, and I believe that each had it's good points and it's bad points.
20yrsinBranson
I remember reading a history book by the noted and distinguished British historian A. L. Rowse. In this particular book - written in the 70's or '80's I think - Rowse described his interviews with elderly people who could still remember the years from about 1890 up until the First World War. He noted that his informants recalled the era with great nostalgia and a yearning for those lovely simpler days ... it was said that there was a sweetness to life that we in our hurried busy lives cannot imagine.
Sorta like what was described in the musical poem by Samuel Barber called "Knoxville Summer of 1915" ...
In the 1890's they called it "the gay 90's" no not sexually as gay but carefree and happy. I have some old beer mugs with people in that time frame in love and proposing with captions like this.
"Here's to love! Connubial Bliss How'd i get in a spot like this?
"Here's to you! Gal of distinction and other things i dare not mention.
We had more mugs but over time they got lost or broken one had a Barbershop quartet singing with a guy on his knees proposing but don't remember the quote it was my favorite.
Does life suck for small villages out in the jungle that still exist today? Farming day to day and without an iphone. I bet it doesn't.
As stated, its just perception, and if you don't know any better. The village doesn't know any better and nor did the folks pre 1900.
And in 100 years from now, they will wonder if our life sucked, when all we had were iphones, gadgets, and lived till 80 years old and not the average 125 years old.
² that.
It's all relative, simple as that.
In absolute, physical terms, today most of us in the first world live better than the queens and kings of the past. But I think it's the relative element that matters most to contemporaries: do I live in better or worse conditions than my neighbor/friend/family member/fellow citizen.
I remember reading a history book by the noted and distinguished British historian A. L. Rowse. In this particular book - written in the 70's or '80's I think - Rowse described his interviews with elderly people who could still remember the years from about 1890 up until the First World War. He noted that his informants recalled the era with great nostalgia and a yearning for those lovely simpler days ... it was said that there was a sweetness to life that we in our hurried busy lives cannot imagine.
Sorta like what was described in the musical poem by Samuel Barber called "Knoxville Summer of 1915" ...
Actually, it was from a book entitled "Death in the Family" by James Agee. If anyone is interested in reading it, I can provide a link via DM.
After reading my Grandmother's daily diary, I would not like living in that era. All day washing, then all day ironing, cooking breakfast, lunch, and diner from scratch everyday. Making clothes for five kids, taking care of the hundred chickens they bought every spring. Sharing their extra food with the neighbors, plowing the fields with horses, taking care of the garden then caning everything. OH, and on Sunday after baking three loaves of bread she would "dress" two chickens for diner. With no electricity, indoor plumbing, or a telephone. They did radio in the evening with a battery operated radio. Not the good ole days in my opinion.
Last edited by jdrtx; 05-09-2011 at 07:27 PM..
Reason: spelling error
Today, we complain about how hard life is, but compared to the past, when half the population died before age 40 (usually as infants/children), and most people had to work their asses off pretty much whenever they weren't sleeping, we have it pretty good.
Were there any societies/times before the 20th century though, where life on Earth was not a living hell? Where leisure was abundant, and people lived full long healthy lives?
Back when I used to talk to my relatives about their lives when they were younger, none of them ever expressed the idea that it was a living hell.
My opinion is that, despite wonderful technological improvements in life, we have become a spoiled society of adolescents, and that this is the real problem. We are so disconnected from the real world in many good ways that we have become a nation of children.
I remember reading a history book by the noted and distinguished British historian A. L. Rowse. In this particular book - written in the 70's or '80's I think - Rowse described his interviews with elderly people who could still remember the years from about 1890 up until the First World War. He noted that his informants recalled the era with great nostalgia and a yearning for those lovely simpler days ... it was said that there was a sweetness to life that we in our hurried busy lives cannot imagine.
Sorta like what was described in the musical poem by Samuel Barber called "Knoxville Summer of 1915" ...
It is human nature to romanticize the past, especially in the wake of tragic events that make things worse.
In the 1870s US there was a nostalgia for the simpler times before the Civil War, and not just amongst pro-Confederates - Twain's "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn", and Winslow Homer's paintings, are examples of this. (Twain had been a member of a pro-Confederate militia in Missouri briefly but I wouldn't consider him to have been pro-Confederacy. He spent the overwhelming majority of the Civil War in the West. Homer was pro-Union. )
After World War I there was an understandable nostalgia for the years before the war, the "Belle Epoque". Much of this lasted well into the 20th Century. Victorian/Edwardian nostalgia in Britain represented nostalgia for the peak years of the Empire. There is Habsburg/Mitteleuropa nostalgia to this day, including in the US, just like there is Confederate nostalgia to this day. Said nostalgia tends to gloss over the less appealing aspects of the societies and eras that are romanticized ; extreme class divisions, all sorts of prejudices, slavery, etc. are glossed over.
I think the key is that as human material and techological skills have advanced, our social skills have declined correspondingly. Older people, while having good and bad like the rest of us, seem intimately more "human" to me than people my age (20s). People connected and created freely (wherever there wasn't outside oppression, anyway).
I dont know but technology wise, alot of what we use now have origins in the 19th century:
The 1800's was an important time in our history with many of the most important technology we rely on today first invented, not only that but the names associated with those breakthroughs are still in use today, here are just a few from the list below Electric Light, Photography, Revolver, Pasteurization, The Telephone, First Car using internal combustion engine ( Here we are nearly 150 yrs later still using the same basic principle ) , Coca Cola ( No longer using Cocaine as important ingredient ), Sewing Machine and Contact Lenses. Some of the names associated with these important breakthroughs, Singer, Goodyear, Dunlop, Pasteur, Benz, Colt, Gatling. What Happened in the 1800s including Events, Technology and Inventions
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