The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past

The world our preindustrial ancestors inhabited was more gruesome than modern minds can fathom.

Trying to imagine the preindustrial past might conjure an image of an idyllic country village with pristine air and residents merrily dancing around maypoles. The healthy, peaceful, prosperous people in this fantasy of pastoral bliss do not realize their contented, leisurely lives will soon be disrupted by the story’s villain: the dark smokestacks of the Industrial Revolution, what the poet Willia...