Ah, the Dark Ages. That period in British history after the Romans went away where everything just stopped, or seemingly so. It didn’t of course. The record petered out. The accepted wisdom is that because people built in wood, drank from horn and worked in leather our archaeological tools to discover their civilisation become useless.… Continue reading Have our Romans already departed?
Tag: society
To set the whole world ‘a-gadding’
You know nothing of progress if you do not know the 19th century. Let us think for a moment about railroads. Before they came, most rural Europeans lived and died within 20 miles of where they were born. Not because there weren’t adventurous souls among them, but would you want to walk from the back… Continue reading To set the whole world ‘a-gadding’
Somebody call the hair police
What did you do if you’re a young (ish) woman in the French region of Brittany in the 1860s and you needed a new dress or a pair of shoes? Why, you had a haircut, that’s what you did. Here’s Bentley’s Miscellany on the subject in 1863:- From 15 to 40 years of age the… Continue reading Somebody call the hair police
Three paragraphs
Not as bad as the 1868 earthquake and tsunamis where 25,000 died, but still pretty serious. This is an example of how the God-fearing 19th century took on board a natural disaster without the handwringing cliché-ridden sentimentalism with which 24 hour news has sensitised the world. This June 30 1877 report is from a provincial paper in the… Continue reading Three paragraphs
Donald Trump’s hair peace
This may be the way that it was just before Rome fell. With barbarians cradling assault rifles at the gate, the commentariat wile away the time that is left to them by worrying themselves sick about Zwarte Piet-type problems. Zwarte Piet is Santa’s cool helper and is a harmless Christmas tradition for kids that dates… Continue reading Donald Trump’s hair peace
What are zoos for?
That page of The Graphic from 1895 just keeps on giving. Looking across from the pheasants shocker is another piece of news that has echoes today. Right now there is a half-hearted debate about what economists might call the moneytisation of cultural assets. As the first world (yes I know, we’ve discussed this phrase), falls… Continue reading What are zoos for?
The Unmet Need
Oil is a risky business. It is not surprising to hear a geologist predict that ‘peak oil’ has past. Oil’s future will be inexorable decline. It would not shock you unduly to hear them say oil is now just “a temporary and vanishing phenomenon—one which young men will live to see come to its natural… Continue reading The Unmet Need
“The pheasant flies a great deal faster than he appears to do”
Reading this book review from 1895 will almost certainly anger practitioners of what is now called animal rights. It will cause bird protection societies to tut tut about how unfeelingly cruel were our ancestors. And of course the class warriors will take it upon themselves to behave as the encouraged guard dogs of our morality.… Continue reading “The pheasant flies a great deal faster than he appears to do”