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The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!
This book explains why the "good old days" were only good for a privileged few and why they were unrelentingly hard for most. Sobering, actually.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Otto L. Bettmann
16 booksOtto Ludwig Bettmann, known as "The Picture Man," was the founder of the Bettmann Archive. Bettmann is considered to have "virtually invented the image resource business."
In 1921, he enrolled in the University of Leipzig and studied history, German literature, and philosophy. At that time a university education consisted of spending time at a number of schools. Otto went to Freiburg for two years then returned to Leipzig to complete his dissertation. His title, "The Emergence of Professional Ethics in the German Book Trade of the Eighteenth Century" addressed the issue of copyright legislation. In retrospect this thesis became the raison d'être of his life and his claim to posterity.
In 1935, he immigrated to the United States from Nazi-controlled Germany, "arriving with a few personal effects and two steamer trunks bursting with photographs, line drawings, engravings, and art reproductions."
He spent the next five decades adding to his collection of images and meeting some of the cultural icons of the times such as Alfred Kinsey, Peter Max, and Stanley Marcus, a diverse collection of people. Artists, musicians, writers and people from all over the world would write to him, often sending little gifts.
In 1921, he enrolled in the University of Leipzig and studied history, German literature, and philosophy. At that time a university education consisted of spending time at a number of schools. Otto went to Freiburg for two years then returned to Leipzig to complete his dissertation. His title, "The Emergence of Professional Ethics in the German Book Trade of the Eighteenth Century" addressed the issue of copyright legislation. In retrospect this thesis became the raison d'être of his life and his claim to posterity.
In 1935, he immigrated to the United States from Nazi-controlled Germany, "arriving with a few personal effects and two steamer trunks bursting with photographs, line drawings, engravings, and art reproductions."
He spent the next five decades adding to his collection of images and meeting some of the cultural icons of the times such as Alfred Kinsey, Peter Max, and Stanley Marcus, a diverse collection of people. Artists, musicians, writers and people from all over the world would write to him, often sending little gifts.
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June 24, 2022
So yes, considering how complicated and stressful modern life is often perceived as being, it is indeed and naturally so rather tempting to look back with fond and rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia at (for example) 19th century America as a simpler and thus also automatically much happier and more contented time and to therefore consider this all as somehow being the so-called Good Old Days.
However and I indeed very very strongly must and have to agree wth author Otto L. Bettman in this respect that according to his book title The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!. For even though Bettman's featured text for The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! might perhaps be considered just a trifle overly morose, depressing and focussing much too heavily on the negatives, with seemingly no textual place at all allowed for anything even remotely positive regarding 19th century America, the salient fact does remain that the teeming with horror, pain and hardship themes and contents, that the information and the details shown by Otto L. Bettman in The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! are not only brutally honest but also totally and absolutely reflect sad but true historical reality and are therefore also in no way Bettman either exaggerating or not showing the truth.
For indeed and certainly (and I actually also checked much of the presented contents of The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!online), Bettman is being in my humble opinion one hundred accurate and authentic when he points out that there were for example huge amounts of rubbish, including human and animal excrement piling high on the streets of 19th century American metropolises like New York City and Chicago, that there were basically no traffic laws whatsoever and that people on foot, that pedestrians were often just moving targets, that store bought groceries were more often than not spoiled, rancid and teeming with potential contagions, that many children were in fact turned into alcoholics because mothers did not dare to let them drink potentially spoiled and dangerous water and that of course due to non existent sanitation, poor personal hygiene and crowded tenements, diseases and raging epidemics were a common occurrence and in ways that would make the recent Covid 19 pandemic appear like a walk in the proverbial park so to speak.
Four stars for The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!, and the only reasons why my rating is not five stars is that for one because The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! was published in 1974, the source notes at the back are of course and naturally so rather out of date for study and research (and which is also why I checked the information presented by Otto L Bettman online instead) and that for two, yes, even though I totally agree with Bettman ripping off nostalgics' Good Old Days blinkers, I do wish that at least on occasion, there would also be a bit of positivity provided, as I do think that The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! is so relentlessly pushing negatives that both Otto L. Bettman and his featured text appear a bit too unbalanced and even angry, which I for one would rather not see as it kind of has the tendency to lessen the potential impact Bettman has with The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!.
However and I indeed very very strongly must and have to agree wth author Otto L. Bettman in this respect that according to his book title The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!. For even though Bettman's featured text for The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! might perhaps be considered just a trifle overly morose, depressing and focussing much too heavily on the negatives, with seemingly no textual place at all allowed for anything even remotely positive regarding 19th century America, the salient fact does remain that the teeming with horror, pain and hardship themes and contents, that the information and the details shown by Otto L. Bettman in The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! are not only brutally honest but also totally and absolutely reflect sad but true historical reality and are therefore also in no way Bettman either exaggerating or not showing the truth.
For indeed and certainly (and I actually also checked much of the presented contents of The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!online), Bettman is being in my humble opinion one hundred accurate and authentic when he points out that there were for example huge amounts of rubbish, including human and animal excrement piling high on the streets of 19th century American metropolises like New York City and Chicago, that there were basically no traffic laws whatsoever and that people on foot, that pedestrians were often just moving targets, that store bought groceries were more often than not spoiled, rancid and teeming with potential contagions, that many children were in fact turned into alcoholics because mothers did not dare to let them drink potentially spoiled and dangerous water and that of course due to non existent sanitation, poor personal hygiene and crowded tenements, diseases and raging epidemics were a common occurrence and in ways that would make the recent Covid 19 pandemic appear like a walk in the proverbial park so to speak.
Four stars for The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!, and the only reasons why my rating is not five stars is that for one because The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! was published in 1974, the source notes at the back are of course and naturally so rather out of date for study and research (and which is also why I checked the information presented by Otto L Bettman online instead) and that for two, yes, even though I totally agree with Bettman ripping off nostalgics' Good Old Days blinkers, I do wish that at least on occasion, there would also be a bit of positivity provided, as I do think that The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! is so relentlessly pushing negatives that both Otto L. Bettman and his featured text appear a bit too unbalanced and even angry, which I for one would rather not see as it kind of has the tendency to lessen the potential impact Bettman has with The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!.
October 26, 2009
In these days of AIDS, the Internet and nuclear weapons, it is very tempting to look back to a simpler age in American history. "The Good Old Days" lasted from approximately 1865 to 1900. This book takes a very clear-eyed look at just how "good" those days really were.
In New York City, garbage (including horse manure) was piled high on city sidewalks. In the rain, those garbage piles turned into slime beds. Western towns were dirty, with horses creating fly-infested cesspools around the hitching posts. People risked their lives attempting to cross major streets like Broadway, because there were no traffic laws. In the winter, horse-drawn snowplows did not do much more than move the snow a few feet. Keeping the streets semi-clear for horse-drawn trolleys was most important. Frequently, the snowplows became stuck in the snow, making a bad traffic problem that much worse.
Milk was diluted with water, and everyone knew it. To improve the color of milk taken from diseased cows, dairymen frequently added chalk, molasses or plaster of Paris. Butter was often rancid, and contained bleach, calcium, hog fat or mashed potatoes. Adulteration of food was commonplace; loaves of bread frequently contained ash from the baker’s oven and grit from his machinery.
Alcoholic children were not uncommon, as a result of many trips to the local bar to fill a pitcher of "beer for father." Most medical schools were run by people more interested in tuition fees than standards, thereby graduating many who knew nothing about medicine. Hospitals, with non-existent standards of hygiene, were basically deathtraps.
This book also explores the reality behind housing (tenements), work (child labor and sweatshops) and education (corporal punishment and very unqualified teachers). For anyone who thinks that those days were like the American equivalent of a Jane Austen novel, read this book. It’s really interesting.
In New York City, garbage (including horse manure) was piled high on city sidewalks. In the rain, those garbage piles turned into slime beds. Western towns were dirty, with horses creating fly-infested cesspools around the hitching posts. People risked their lives attempting to cross major streets like Broadway, because there were no traffic laws. In the winter, horse-drawn snowplows did not do much more than move the snow a few feet. Keeping the streets semi-clear for horse-drawn trolleys was most important. Frequently, the snowplows became stuck in the snow, making a bad traffic problem that much worse.
Milk was diluted with water, and everyone knew it. To improve the color of milk taken from diseased cows, dairymen frequently added chalk, molasses or plaster of Paris. Butter was often rancid, and contained bleach, calcium, hog fat or mashed potatoes. Adulteration of food was commonplace; loaves of bread frequently contained ash from the baker’s oven and grit from his machinery.
Alcoholic children were not uncommon, as a result of many trips to the local bar to fill a pitcher of "beer for father." Most medical schools were run by people more interested in tuition fees than standards, thereby graduating many who knew nothing about medicine. Hospitals, with non-existent standards of hygiene, were basically deathtraps.
This book also explores the reality behind housing (tenements), work (child labor and sweatshops) and education (corporal punishment and very unqualified teachers). For anyone who thinks that those days were like the American equivalent of a Jane Austen novel, read this book. It’s really interesting.
July 25, 2012
Whenever I went to my grandfather's house as a young boy, I would inevitably take out this book. The illustrations that Otto Bettmann collected and used for this work are striking. I remember poring over the pages of this book, fascinated by every illustration of the United States of America's not so charming Gilded Age.
I was absolutely anamoured with the idea that there could be a construction of history that did not accord with reality. This was my first encounter with the concept of history being open to differing interpretations, and it really helped me to gain a skeptical eye when it came to various presentations of history.
Otto Bettmann made a career out of collecting images, he was the curator and the founder of the Bettmann archives (which are now property of Corbis). His skill at finding and choosing images is readily apparent in this book, and I'd recommend this book on the basis of the illustrations and photographs alone.
It wasn't until I was about twelve that I actually took the time to read more than the book's captions. At the time I saw nothing wrong with Bettmann's presentation. After my grandfather's death about fifteen years later, I was given this book. I read it again - it really is a quick read if you don't spend too much time on the illustrations and photographs.
The illustrations are still as beautiful as ever. As for the writing, Otto Bettmann makes some excellent points, but there just isn't enough room for him to be anything more than brief on each topic. It would be helpful to have meaningful statistics to back up his grand statements. The book really is skimpy when it comes down to it. I can see why someone would be frustrated at the grand statements and generalizations that are made without a whole lot of examples. Of course, these are minor quibbles and the book is what it is - a great collection of illustrations filled with intriguing facts about the past.
I still love this book, it has a special place in my heart. While it is certainly not great history writing, it is definitely an enjoyable read.
I read some Amazon reviews of this book and was amused by the number of reviewers who were vexed by Otto Bettmann's perceived attack on the United States itself. The idea that a "foreigner" would come to the United States and then write this book is, to them, a betrayal of the highest order. Why doesn't Mr. Bettmann write about how bad things were in the rest of the world? Why is he focussing on the negative? Why can't he talk about good things? There was even one reviewer asking how a Jew could write this book and not be grateful for the shelter given by the United States . . . wow. Really? I mean, really?
I'm always a little confused by reviewers who critique a book for not being about what they think the book should be about. It's like getting upset that there are no cookies in the box of doughnuts you bought. You bought the donuts, you knew they were donuts, now eat them (or give them to me).
Great book.
I was absolutely anamoured with the idea that there could be a construction of history that did not accord with reality. This was my first encounter with the concept of history being open to differing interpretations, and it really helped me to gain a skeptical eye when it came to various presentations of history.
Otto Bettmann made a career out of collecting images, he was the curator and the founder of the Bettmann archives (which are now property of Corbis). His skill at finding and choosing images is readily apparent in this book, and I'd recommend this book on the basis of the illustrations and photographs alone.
It wasn't until I was about twelve that I actually took the time to read more than the book's captions. At the time I saw nothing wrong with Bettmann's presentation. After my grandfather's death about fifteen years later, I was given this book. I read it again - it really is a quick read if you don't spend too much time on the illustrations and photographs.
The illustrations are still as beautiful as ever. As for the writing, Otto Bettmann makes some excellent points, but there just isn't enough room for him to be anything more than brief on each topic. It would be helpful to have meaningful statistics to back up his grand statements. The book really is skimpy when it comes down to it. I can see why someone would be frustrated at the grand statements and generalizations that are made without a whole lot of examples. Of course, these are minor quibbles and the book is what it is - a great collection of illustrations filled with intriguing facts about the past.
I still love this book, it has a special place in my heart. While it is certainly not great history writing, it is definitely an enjoyable read.
I read some Amazon reviews of this book and was amused by the number of reviewers who were vexed by Otto Bettmann's perceived attack on the United States itself. The idea that a "foreigner" would come to the United States and then write this book is, to them, a betrayal of the highest order. Why doesn't Mr. Bettmann write about how bad things were in the rest of the world? Why is he focussing on the negative? Why can't he talk about good things? There was even one reviewer asking how a Jew could write this book and not be grateful for the shelter given by the United States . . . wow. Really? I mean, really?
I'm always a little confused by reviewers who critique a book for not being about what they think the book should be about. It's like getting upset that there are no cookies in the box of doughnuts you bought. You bought the donuts, you knew they were donuts, now eat them (or give them to me).
Great book.
July 19, 2016
Yesterday, I picked up this book at The House of Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts. I really should have picked up a copy of The House of Seven Gables itself, but I figured I'd never get around to reading it since I'm terrible about reading the classics. This one I knew I would read.
It only took me a day to read, which is quite quick, even for me. But there are loads of illustrations, and the text is brief.
However, by the time I hit the middle of the book, I felt like I was being walloped over the head with pessimism. Yes, I know the system was broken throughout much of the 19th century, with crooked politicians and doctors unaware of germ theory and kids being forced to work long hours for meager pay and food being adulterated with horrible things. But while it's true that we shouldn't recall those more simple days with rose-colored glasses, I have a really hard time believing they were that horrible to everyone. While people didn't enjoy the terrible smells of the horse manure littering the busy city streets, it's what they knew and were used to. It's not like someone dropped a 21st century person down in the middle of the fetid streets of Victorian New York City, rancid with decaying meat and the aforementioned manure and the lack of proper sewage and any fresh air.
I was also surprised at the vitriol he aimed at the frontier lands. Yes, the Wild West was lawless, and probably quite ill-smelling and fetid in its own right. But I've also read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, and while I do realize she romanticized a lot of it, she did seem to have a rather happy childhood -- her father dragging her mother and sisters around when he gets bored with a place notwithstanding. They do without quite a lot, but they still had a childhood, not simply as farm drudges who worked from dusk to dawn without any way to broaden their minds. Bettmann writes that "farm children were notoriously immature not as the result of an evil design but because the rigors of family survival made adult demands on their bodies and left their minds undeveloped" (56). I have a feeling Wilder would take umbrage at such a statement, considering that her childhood on the prairies was definitely not privileged, yet she grew up to write a series of novels that are still in print and well-beloved by several generations of Americans.
Most of the illustrations are informative, but I find them a bit suspect in their origin. Most are political cartoons, which are usually exaggerated to make a point and to make their viewers think. Were conditions really that terrible, or were the cartoonists showing how dangerous things could get if something weren't done about the situation at hand?
Also, the nature of the way in which Bettmann chose to write his book gives very little detail to any particular ill of the time. He gives quick blurbs, a few well-chosen quotes (that are never explained; they are simply dropped in their entirety into the prose), and makes a sweeping generalization that is usually quite negative.
I understand that Bettmann's goal was to disillusion the American public a bit from their wishing for the "good old days," but I feel like he swung too far to the other side of things. They weren't the good old days, it's true, but neither were they truly that horrible.
It only took me a day to read, which is quite quick, even for me. But there are loads of illustrations, and the text is brief.
However, by the time I hit the middle of the book, I felt like I was being walloped over the head with pessimism. Yes, I know the system was broken throughout much of the 19th century, with crooked politicians and doctors unaware of germ theory and kids being forced to work long hours for meager pay and food being adulterated with horrible things. But while it's true that we shouldn't recall those more simple days with rose-colored glasses, I have a really hard time believing they were that horrible to everyone. While people didn't enjoy the terrible smells of the horse manure littering the busy city streets, it's what they knew and were used to. It's not like someone dropped a 21st century person down in the middle of the fetid streets of Victorian New York City, rancid with decaying meat and the aforementioned manure and the lack of proper sewage and any fresh air.
I was also surprised at the vitriol he aimed at the frontier lands. Yes, the Wild West was lawless, and probably quite ill-smelling and fetid in its own right. But I've also read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, and while I do realize she romanticized a lot of it, she did seem to have a rather happy childhood -- her father dragging her mother and sisters around when he gets bored with a place notwithstanding. They do without quite a lot, but they still had a childhood, not simply as farm drudges who worked from dusk to dawn without any way to broaden their minds. Bettmann writes that "farm children were notoriously immature not as the result of an evil design but because the rigors of family survival made adult demands on their bodies and left their minds undeveloped" (56). I have a feeling Wilder would take umbrage at such a statement, considering that her childhood on the prairies was definitely not privileged, yet she grew up to write a series of novels that are still in print and well-beloved by several generations of Americans.
Most of the illustrations are informative, but I find them a bit suspect in their origin. Most are political cartoons, which are usually exaggerated to make a point and to make their viewers think. Were conditions really that terrible, or were the cartoonists showing how dangerous things could get if something weren't done about the situation at hand?
Also, the nature of the way in which Bettmann chose to write his book gives very little detail to any particular ill of the time. He gives quick blurbs, a few well-chosen quotes (that are never explained; they are simply dropped in their entirety into the prose), and makes a sweeping generalization that is usually quite negative.
I understand that Bettmann's goal was to disillusion the American public a bit from their wishing for the "good old days," but I feel like he swung too far to the other side of things. They weren't the good old days, it's true, but neither were they truly that horrible.
March 30, 2009
Nostalgia being a stubborn human sentiment, it's not surprising that once an era has passed beyond living memory, it acquires a rosy hue. Otto Bettmann's "The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!" is an illustrated wake-up call for those who assume that domestic bliss, moral perfection, and gilded prosperity characterized the years between the Civil War and the dawn of the twentieth century.
Granted, this was a time of great technological advancement. The telephone, motion picture camera, and automobile are but a few of the modern conveniences that made their first appearance. But daily life was hardly the stuff of a Currier & Ives print, and Bettman presses the point with repulsive anecdotes and alarming statistics.
City dwellers had their health and safety threatened by uncollected garbage, industrial pollution, and slum-bred criminals. Farmers worked fourteen-hour days just to survive. Over fifty thousand homeless `tramps' wandered throughout the American countryside, their numbers exceeding the size of Wellington's army at Waterloo. Marshall Field made an estimated $600 an hour while the shop girls who toiled in his stores were lucky if they took home $3 to $5 per week. Accidents involving horse-drawn conveyances killed ten times more people than automobiles do today. Trains were just as deadly: in one year alone (1890), there were ten thousand railroad-related fatalities. Diarist George Strong complained, "We shall never travel safely til some pious, wealthy, and much beloved railway director has been hanged for murder."
Grim photos and illustrations from the famous Bettman archive accompany the text. The images of opium addicted women, polluted beaches, and homeless children are all contemporary, silencing anyone who might be inclined to accuse the author of exaggerating.
"The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!" is not a critical or insightful look at the problems that plagued nineteenth century society. Visually and in content style, the book reminds me of an extra-thick edition of an old-fashioned `penny dreadful' newspaper. Shocking and titillating, but otherwise shallow. Since Bettman probably didn't intend for it to be anything more than what a previous reviewer called "an antidote for nostaligitis", this is not a cause for complaint.
Granted, this was a time of great technological advancement. The telephone, motion picture camera, and automobile are but a few of the modern conveniences that made their first appearance. But daily life was hardly the stuff of a Currier & Ives print, and Bettman presses the point with repulsive anecdotes and alarming statistics.
City dwellers had their health and safety threatened by uncollected garbage, industrial pollution, and slum-bred criminals. Farmers worked fourteen-hour days just to survive. Over fifty thousand homeless `tramps' wandered throughout the American countryside, their numbers exceeding the size of Wellington's army at Waterloo. Marshall Field made an estimated $600 an hour while the shop girls who toiled in his stores were lucky if they took home $3 to $5 per week. Accidents involving horse-drawn conveyances killed ten times more people than automobiles do today. Trains were just as deadly: in one year alone (1890), there were ten thousand railroad-related fatalities. Diarist George Strong complained, "We shall never travel safely til some pious, wealthy, and much beloved railway director has been hanged for murder."
Grim photos and illustrations from the famous Bettman archive accompany the text. The images of opium addicted women, polluted beaches, and homeless children are all contemporary, silencing anyone who might be inclined to accuse the author of exaggerating.
"The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!" is not a critical or insightful look at the problems that plagued nineteenth century society. Visually and in content style, the book reminds me of an extra-thick edition of an old-fashioned `penny dreadful' newspaper. Shocking and titillating, but otherwise shallow. Since Bettman probably didn't intend for it to be anything more than what a previous reviewer called "an antidote for nostaligitis", this is not a cause for complaint.
June 29, 2010
I'm being somewhat generous. It should probably be 2 stars, but there was a wealth of pictures & drawings that I've never seen elsewhere. The book did have its good points, too. Unfortunately, it tried too hard to live up to the title.
For example, the section on guns was laughable. There was 1/3 page of text that basically said kids were given toy guns. This is terrible? The other 2/3 of the page was made up of drawings. Whee! This section has no facts in it. I really don't know why it was included. The only reason I knew guns were terrible was because of the title of the book & I happen to disagree.
Other sections, especially toward the end, weren't well done, either. Some sections were milked to show just how terrible life really was. I doubt there were any outright lies, but facts were misrepresented to show life in the very worst light. The reader is led to believe a few tragedies were the norm.
For all its faults, there are some very interesting facts held within the pages. His facts would be of great benefit to any fiction writer with a level of technology before 1900 or so. For instance, it's rare that any fiction writer ever considers what the lack of refrigeration means for city dwellers; animals in the street, fly blown meats & lots of manure with all their smells. Similarly, few writers have any idea of how much waste a city relying on horses generates. He tells you precisely how this plays out. We expect regular trash pickup. If you want to know what happens when there is none, just read this book. It really is terrible & true.
This could have been a much better done book, but it certainly isn't a waste of time. It does open your eyes to quite a few facts that I think everyone needs to know & is presented in a short, easy to read format - great for reading during commercials or when you have just a few minutes.
The good old days had plenty of problems. It's worth reading, possibly even keeping around to refer to, if you write for a living. Just don't take it as a true look at Victorian era America. Use it to count your blessings, though.
For example, the section on guns was laughable. There was 1/3 page of text that basically said kids were given toy guns. This is terrible? The other 2/3 of the page was made up of drawings. Whee! This section has no facts in it. I really don't know why it was included. The only reason I knew guns were terrible was because of the title of the book & I happen to disagree.
Other sections, especially toward the end, weren't well done, either. Some sections were milked to show just how terrible life really was. I doubt there were any outright lies, but facts were misrepresented to show life in the very worst light. The reader is led to believe a few tragedies were the norm.
For all its faults, there are some very interesting facts held within the pages. His facts would be of great benefit to any fiction writer with a level of technology before 1900 or so. For instance, it's rare that any fiction writer ever considers what the lack of refrigeration means for city dwellers; animals in the street, fly blown meats & lots of manure with all their smells. Similarly, few writers have any idea of how much waste a city relying on horses generates. He tells you precisely how this plays out. We expect regular trash pickup. If you want to know what happens when there is none, just read this book. It really is terrible & true.
This could have been a much better done book, but it certainly isn't a waste of time. It does open your eyes to quite a few facts that I think everyone needs to know & is presented in a short, easy to read format - great for reading during commercials or when you have just a few minutes.
The good old days had plenty of problems. It's worth reading, possibly even keeping around to refer to, if you write for a living. Just don't take it as a true look at Victorian era America. Use it to count your blessings, though.
June 14, 2010
This book is a good intorduction to the modern reader of some of the problems that ordinary people faced from the 1820's to the 1890's.
The rich did pretty well, but despite many new inventions--telephone, telegraph, transcontinental railroads---the average person had it very hard.
There was no forty hour workweek--you worked as long as your employer decreed. No OSHA to set safety standards. Admittedly there was no polluction from car exhausts; what they had instead was hundreds of horse, producing lots of manure.
Foods and medicines had no guarantee of purity or cleanliness unless you made it yourself. And this book makes clear that crime and political corruption are not just a curse of the twentieth century.
I rated this book a four; the text is really a three, but the pictures--which are repreinted from newspapaers and books of that time rate a five by me, so the average is four.
The pictures are just oustanding; the text is a little basic but does complement the pictures well. Out of print, but well worth looking for on interlibrary loan.
Recommended for anyone interested in the history of daily life in the 19th century.
The rich did pretty well, but despite many new inventions--telephone, telegraph, transcontinental railroads---the average person had it very hard.
There was no forty hour workweek--you worked as long as your employer decreed. No OSHA to set safety standards. Admittedly there was no polluction from car exhausts; what they had instead was hundreds of horse, producing lots of manure.
Foods and medicines had no guarantee of purity or cleanliness unless you made it yourself. And this book makes clear that crime and political corruption are not just a curse of the twentieth century.
I rated this book a four; the text is really a three, but the pictures--which are repreinted from newspapaers and books of that time rate a five by me, so the average is four.
The pictures are just oustanding; the text is a little basic but does complement the pictures well. Out of print, but well worth looking for on interlibrary loan.
Recommended for anyone interested in the history of daily life in the 19th century.
March 28, 2014
Ah, I love it when people bemoan the American nostalgia of yester-year "good old days." Everyone has forgotten what it was actually like at the turn of the century and how terrible it was. I'm sure in the future they will be writing books like this about how amazingly stupid we are today.
June 8, 2016
My dad gave me this books to read years ago to counter the BS of looking at the past with rose-colored glasses.
I kind of want to order some copies to pass out to certain folks I know...
I kind of want to order some copies to pass out to certain folks I know...
June 5, 2022
I had read this book many years ago, and was reminded of it recently.
It debunks the rosy false memories of "The good Old Days" that some of my family would reminisce about.
It was very interesting to see how far we have come. (And perhaps in some instances, how we have gone backwards again)
It debunks the rosy false memories of "The good Old Days" that some of my family would reminisce about.
It was very interesting to see how far we have come. (And perhaps in some instances, how we have gone backwards again)
April 8, 2015
I've read this before. When I first read it, it was an antidote to the "good old Days" thinking in the last part of the 20th Century. Now reading this, it makes me think that it's the blueprint for most of the most conservative thinking members of the GOP. The era covered in this book, if you rents an apartment, you as the renter had NO legal rights. Safety was wishful thinking at any factory or coal mine. Children worked in the factories and adults worked twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week for little pay. Candies were colored with poisonous substances. Things weren't all sunshine and lollipops.
September 26, 2022
Throw away your time machines! This book makes a good case. Authenticated with copious illustrations from the author’s own Bettmann Archive.
This is the past at its worst, of course; that is understood. It wasn’t always this bad. But it was brutal for many, maybe even most, people.
I am glad that I do not have to witness the flogging of horses on a daily basis.
This is the past at its worst, of course; that is understood. It wasn’t always this bad. But it was brutal for many, maybe even most, people.
I am glad that I do not have to witness the flogging of horses on a daily basis.
December 11, 2010
Love the descriptions of 1800s Chicago having a rainbow of sewage floating through it or those of Pittsburgh just swimming in coal dust.
June 22, 2026
With the semiquincentennial coming up soon, I wanted to read something uniquely American. This definitely fits, but I need to tweak the plan because I discovered what I actually want is something that focuses more on American exceptionalism. In that, this was an abject failure, but more on that in a moment. I have Washington and Franklin bios lined up which will fill the bill, and I plan to reread The Declaration of Independence on July fourth, but I really want to end on some kind of patriotic novel, preferably set during the Revolutionary War. A good old, rip-roaring, flag-waving, drum-and-fife-playing, dandy-doodle-yanking yarn that makes you wanna stand up, say the Pledge of Allegiance, and belt out the Star Spangled Banner! Something so unapologetically patriotic it makes Rocky IV look like a Michael Moore hit job. Unfortunately, I don't have anything like that on my shelves at home, but 2nd and Charles has Rise to Rebellion, and that looks like a good contender, so I'll give it a go. I was surprised to find there are very few historical novels about the Revolutionary War, but whatcha gonna do?
Anyway, this book doesn't have any of that going on for it. It focuses on the ugly side of the Gilded Age and a decade or so on either end of it, but it's still quintessentially American. We went through some major growing pains between the War Between the States and the turn of the 20th century. Unchecked capitalism ran rampant and showed the world just how terrible it can be if you're not one of the top dogs. Those of you who know me might be surprised to hear me make such a charge, for I support capitalism and think it's the best business system around provided it has proper guardrails like it does today. Sure, there's room for improvement in some areas, and we've overshot the mark in others, and most everyone's gonna disagree on where the lines ought to be drawn, but trust me on this: we are much better off now than we were 125-175 years ago. The difference is so stark there's really no comparison. People complain about Zuckerburg, Bezos, Gates, Musk and friends (and I'm certainly no fan of the first two), but they can't touch the likes of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt. These were the robber baron Dons and in a league of their own. Add in a string of weak presidents surrounded by corrupt government officials a la Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine in New York, as well as a few other factors, and you have a recipe for misery for the masses.
New York is most often used as an example because that's where the author ran his operation (the Bettmann Archive, one of the biggest picture libraries in the world), but the rot was everywhere and touched every aspect of American life, urban and rural. Anyone who believes things now are as bad as they have ever been is either insane or woefully ignorant of history, but they need look no further than this book for a dose of gratitude if they're capable of having any. I'm tempted to put everything this book has to say in this review, but I'll resist and just try to sum up each chapter in a sentence or two.
You think pollution is bad now? Please. Air in cities was practically unbreathable due to factory smog output, garbage piled in the streets along with animal feces not to mention dead animals.
You think you have to deal with bad traffic? Congestion in major cities in the Gilded age makes traffic on the Ventura Freeway in LA, or I-95 in New York, or the I-95/395/495 clusterfuck in NOVA/DC look like it was slipping through like buttered-up pigs at the county fair, and you took your life in your hands just trying to cross the street. That's not hyperbole. People who ran others down were never punished because the prevailing thought of the day was that the pedestrian should've been more careful. We've done a 180 on that score in the last century. Now it's the driver who fears hitting the pedestrian.
Housing for the masses was a national joke, but nobody was laughing. People were piled on each other to the point of suffocation in uninsulated firetraps which often collapsed if they never got around to catching on fire and burning down.
City too much for you? Wanna move to the country? Every person on a farm old enough to walk worked from sunup to sundown and barely produced enough to feed themselves. Many lost their farms to foreclosure because they couldn't sell enough to make the mortgage payments.
Think you work too many hours? Think your working conditions are too severe? You would get zero sympathy from anyone in the Gilded Age who worked 12+ hour shifts every day in dangerous conditions with no workman's comp for accidents. If you were maimed or killed, tough titty said the kitty, next in line please step up to take the deceased's place. Any social interaction was punished. There were no child labor laws, so this also extended to elementary age children who were given some of the most dangerous jobs in factories because they were small enough to crawl into the tight spots to clear out whatever was mucking up a machine. If it kicked back on while they were still in there and they lost a limb, or their life, too bad, so sad, the parents were already given a dollar when the lad took the job to release the company from any liability. Next boy, please take your place. (Generous employers would give the parents half a sawbuck, but it wasn't required of them.)
You think crime is bad now or was bad in the late 20th century? Well, it certainly was, but it must stand in awe of the lawlessness of the Gilded Age. A lot of this was attributable to the aptly named Wild West, but it was just as bad in cities. Crime during this time was "an American phenomenon with no equal in the rest of the world" and rose 445% after the Civil War. Murders, rapes, prostitution, and thefts as well as graft, and other white-collar counterparts. And fuck the police if you want any help; they were hated as much if not more than the criminals because they were usually in cahoots with them, not to mention the lawyers, judges, and government officials. AND! Once again, watch out for them kids. Those that weren't being worked to death were learning the trade of crime, and they excelled at it.
Food and drink: What you took in was sometimes worse than what came out the other end. Considering what went into the food it's a miracle we made it to the 20th century, but a person's constitution can do amazing things. (Upton Sinclair details this pretty well in The Jungle.) Alcoholism also ran rampant during this time, and anybody of any age could get liquor.
Too bad if you got sick. You were likely treated by a "doctor" who had taken two four-month courses, the second a verbatim repeat of the first, and had gotten his degree from one of 460 diploma mills in the country, usually taught by a graduate of the same school who also didn't know jack shit. Surgeons didn't even have sense enough to wash their hands before reaching into their patient's exposed guts to fix whatever they thought needed fixing, so infection was the order of the day if they managed to not kill the patient with the surgery. Everyone remembers our so-called pandemic that started in 2020, but it can't hold a candle to the epidemics of the Gilded Age (or any time prior to the 21st century, really). Treatment for the mentally ill and drug addicts would have the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition going "Damn!... Why didn't we think of that?!"
Education was run by people who had no interest in teaching anything at all and simply crammed facts into the heads of kids who were piled on top of each other in way overcrowded classrooms. "A man who had failed at everything bought himself a birch rod and became a teacher." He managed this with ease by grabbing a certificate from any old place and usually put the rod to good use because if there's "no lickin'" there's "no larnin'." But you better be careful with discipline. Country schoolmarm Miss Etta Barstow found this out the hard way when she was stoned to death by four of her pupils, ages 13, 11, 11, & 9. (She didn't die immediately, but a couple of days later due to complications with diabetes brought on by the stoning, but "stoned to death" sounds more sensational, and since that's the phrase Bettmann used, I'll roll with it too.) The teacher's offense? The boys didn't come in after recess when called, so she locked them out of the school room and taught the rest of the students until lunch break when she opened the doors again. The miscreants stayed outside cussing, fussing, and throwing rocks at the building, then harassed her with words and stones as she made her way home.
Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay,
There is no school today.
Our teacher passed away;
We stoned her yesterday.
She started to decay,
We threw her in the bay.
She floated to Calais,
And scared the fish away.
Anybody traveling during the Gilded Age did so at his own peril. Trains were rolling death traps. In 1890 alone, 10,000 people died and 80,000 were injured in railroad related accidents. (For perspective, 200-400 people die all over the world in airplane accidents per year now, and 800 or so on railroads with three quarters of those being people trespassing on the train tracks.) Anything near the tracks was in just as much danger from belching flames and cinders settling on whatever it passed. Broken trestles and tracks, exploding boilers, faulty signals (where there were any at all), and incompetent and careless engineers and switchmen caused trouble every day, but the managers were the worst for they gave not a single shit about the dangers as long as they were making money. George T. Strong wrote in his diary "we shall never travel safely till some pious, wealthy, and much beloved railroad director has been hanged for murder." Luggage was simply thrown off the train at the stops, and if the trunk broke all to hell, that was just your misfortune. Passage across the ocean, while not quite as dangerous to life and limb, was extremely uncomfortable and still saw its fair share of death from illness.
As for leisure, there wasn't much for the middle class and nearly none for the masses. Vacations did not exist for them, and a trip to the park was pretty much a trip to the local dump complete with bums, tramps, and thieves. Gambling was rampant, hunting was done just for sport, often from people bored on passing trains (this was the period when the bison of the west went from numbering about 60 million to about 100 which were split into six herds protected by ranchers and one wild herd of 25 that survived. It's a miracle they survived extinction, and every bison alive today descends from those 125.) Football games were savage melees with 33% casualty rates that often left players motionless on the field. Recreational facilities for kids were nonexistent so they simply got in trouble by destroying property, starting fires, etc. Do you enjoy trips to the beach? You wouldn't enjoy them in the Gilded Age, at least not in New York City which simply dumped its garbage in the rivers. All of it would settle for several miles up and down the coastline. People went anyway because there was nothing else to do.
Here's a Coney Island you never see on a postcard.
Notice the fine lithograph pictures above. This book is filled with about 400 of them with a handful of old photos thrown in, and they add a lot.
All that being said, this book lays it on pretty thick. Things weren't this bleak for everyone, not even the poor, and Bettmann is showcasing the absolute worst while ignoring the rest. However, he stated his purpose in the introduction. A lot of his other books focused on the pleasant side of the age, and there was a pleasant side. The intention of this book was to focus on the other side of the coin and do a bit of muckraking. In that, it succeeds, but as a result you don't get the full picture of the Gilded Age. There were some good parts, few though they are when compared with other periods in American history.
Personal note: This was one of granddaddy's books, and I used to look at it all the time when visiting the grandparents when I was a kid in high school or thereabouts. It's broken up into short segments a page or two each, and I would cherry-pick what I wanted to check out. This was my first time reading it through from cover to cover, and it's a shame I waited so long. Grandma was nice enough to give it to me a couple of years ago when she was thinning things out to downsize to a new place. Anyway, anything that reminds me of granddaddy is great, but I tried not to let that influence my rating. This really is a four-star book.
Anyway, this book doesn't have any of that going on for it. It focuses on the ugly side of the Gilded Age and a decade or so on either end of it, but it's still quintessentially American. We went through some major growing pains between the War Between the States and the turn of the 20th century. Unchecked capitalism ran rampant and showed the world just how terrible it can be if you're not one of the top dogs. Those of you who know me might be surprised to hear me make such a charge, for I support capitalism and think it's the best business system around provided it has proper guardrails like it does today. Sure, there's room for improvement in some areas, and we've overshot the mark in others, and most everyone's gonna disagree on where the lines ought to be drawn, but trust me on this: we are much better off now than we were 125-175 years ago. The difference is so stark there's really no comparison. People complain about Zuckerburg, Bezos, Gates, Musk and friends (and I'm certainly no fan of the first two), but they can't touch the likes of Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt. These were the robber baron Dons and in a league of their own. Add in a string of weak presidents surrounded by corrupt government officials a la Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine in New York, as well as a few other factors, and you have a recipe for misery for the masses.
New York is most often used as an example because that's where the author ran his operation (the Bettmann Archive, one of the biggest picture libraries in the world), but the rot was everywhere and touched every aspect of American life, urban and rural. Anyone who believes things now are as bad as they have ever been is either insane or woefully ignorant of history, but they need look no further than this book for a dose of gratitude if they're capable of having any. I'm tempted to put everything this book has to say in this review, but I'll resist and just try to sum up each chapter in a sentence or two.
You think pollution is bad now? Please. Air in cities was practically unbreathable due to factory smog output, garbage piled in the streets along with animal feces not to mention dead animals.
You think you have to deal with bad traffic? Congestion in major cities in the Gilded age makes traffic on the Ventura Freeway in LA, or I-95 in New York, or the I-95/395/495 clusterfuck in NOVA/DC look like it was slipping through like buttered-up pigs at the county fair, and you took your life in your hands just trying to cross the street. That's not hyperbole. People who ran others down were never punished because the prevailing thought of the day was that the pedestrian should've been more careful. We've done a 180 on that score in the last century. Now it's the driver who fears hitting the pedestrian.
Housing for the masses was a national joke, but nobody was laughing. People were piled on each other to the point of suffocation in uninsulated firetraps which often collapsed if they never got around to catching on fire and burning down.
City too much for you? Wanna move to the country? Every person on a farm old enough to walk worked from sunup to sundown and barely produced enough to feed themselves. Many lost their farms to foreclosure because they couldn't sell enough to make the mortgage payments.
Think you work too many hours? Think your working conditions are too severe? You would get zero sympathy from anyone in the Gilded Age who worked 12+ hour shifts every day in dangerous conditions with no workman's comp for accidents. If you were maimed or killed, tough titty said the kitty, next in line please step up to take the deceased's place. Any social interaction was punished. There were no child labor laws, so this also extended to elementary age children who were given some of the most dangerous jobs in factories because they were small enough to crawl into the tight spots to clear out whatever was mucking up a machine. If it kicked back on while they were still in there and they lost a limb, or their life, too bad, so sad, the parents were already given a dollar when the lad took the job to release the company from any liability. Next boy, please take your place. (Generous employers would give the parents half a sawbuck, but it wasn't required of them.)
You think crime is bad now or was bad in the late 20th century? Well, it certainly was, but it must stand in awe of the lawlessness of the Gilded Age. A lot of this was attributable to the aptly named Wild West, but it was just as bad in cities. Crime during this time was "an American phenomenon with no equal in the rest of the world" and rose 445% after the Civil War. Murders, rapes, prostitution, and thefts as well as graft, and other white-collar counterparts. And fuck the police if you want any help; they were hated as much if not more than the criminals because they were usually in cahoots with them, not to mention the lawyers, judges, and government officials. AND! Once again, watch out for them kids. Those that weren't being worked to death were learning the trade of crime, and they excelled at it.
Food and drink: What you took in was sometimes worse than what came out the other end. Considering what went into the food it's a miracle we made it to the 20th century, but a person's constitution can do amazing things. (Upton Sinclair details this pretty well in The Jungle.) Alcoholism also ran rampant during this time, and anybody of any age could get liquor.
Too bad if you got sick. You were likely treated by a "doctor" who had taken two four-month courses, the second a verbatim repeat of the first, and had gotten his degree from one of 460 diploma mills in the country, usually taught by a graduate of the same school who also didn't know jack shit. Surgeons didn't even have sense enough to wash their hands before reaching into their patient's exposed guts to fix whatever they thought needed fixing, so infection was the order of the day if they managed to not kill the patient with the surgery. Everyone remembers our so-called pandemic that started in 2020, but it can't hold a candle to the epidemics of the Gilded Age (or any time prior to the 21st century, really). Treatment for the mentally ill and drug addicts would have the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition going "Damn!... Why didn't we think of that?!"
Education was run by people who had no interest in teaching anything at all and simply crammed facts into the heads of kids who were piled on top of each other in way overcrowded classrooms. "A man who had failed at everything bought himself a birch rod and became a teacher." He managed this with ease by grabbing a certificate from any old place and usually put the rod to good use because if there's "no lickin'" there's "no larnin'." But you better be careful with discipline. Country schoolmarm Miss Etta Barstow found this out the hard way when she was stoned to death by four of her pupils, ages 13, 11, 11, & 9. (She didn't die immediately, but a couple of days later due to complications with diabetes brought on by the stoning, but "stoned to death" sounds more sensational, and since that's the phrase Bettmann used, I'll roll with it too.) The teacher's offense? The boys didn't come in after recess when called, so she locked them out of the school room and taught the rest of the students until lunch break when she opened the doors again. The miscreants stayed outside cussing, fussing, and throwing rocks at the building, then harassed her with words and stones as she made her way home.
Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay,
There is no school today.
Our teacher passed away;
We stoned her yesterday.
She started to decay,
We threw her in the bay.
She floated to Calais,
And scared the fish away.
Anybody traveling during the Gilded Age did so at his own peril. Trains were rolling death traps. In 1890 alone, 10,000 people died and 80,000 were injured in railroad related accidents. (For perspective, 200-400 people die all over the world in airplane accidents per year now, and 800 or so on railroads with three quarters of those being people trespassing on the train tracks.) Anything near the tracks was in just as much danger from belching flames and cinders settling on whatever it passed. Broken trestles and tracks, exploding boilers, faulty signals (where there were any at all), and incompetent and careless engineers and switchmen caused trouble every day, but the managers were the worst for they gave not a single shit about the dangers as long as they were making money. George T. Strong wrote in his diary "we shall never travel safely till some pious, wealthy, and much beloved railroad director has been hanged for murder." Luggage was simply thrown off the train at the stops, and if the trunk broke all to hell, that was just your misfortune. Passage across the ocean, while not quite as dangerous to life and limb, was extremely uncomfortable and still saw its fair share of death from illness.
As for leisure, there wasn't much for the middle class and nearly none for the masses. Vacations did not exist for them, and a trip to the park was pretty much a trip to the local dump complete with bums, tramps, and thieves. Gambling was rampant, hunting was done just for sport, often from people bored on passing trains (this was the period when the bison of the west went from numbering about 60 million to about 100 which were split into six herds protected by ranchers and one wild herd of 25 that survived. It's a miracle they survived extinction, and every bison alive today descends from those 125.) Football games were savage melees with 33% casualty rates that often left players motionless on the field. Recreational facilities for kids were nonexistent so they simply got in trouble by destroying property, starting fires, etc. Do you enjoy trips to the beach? You wouldn't enjoy them in the Gilded Age, at least not in New York City which simply dumped its garbage in the rivers. All of it would settle for several miles up and down the coastline. People went anyway because there was nothing else to do.
Here's a Coney Island you never see on a postcard.
Notice the fine lithograph pictures above. This book is filled with about 400 of them with a handful of old photos thrown in, and they add a lot.
All that being said, this book lays it on pretty thick. Things weren't this bleak for everyone, not even the poor, and Bettmann is showcasing the absolute worst while ignoring the rest. However, he stated his purpose in the introduction. A lot of his other books focused on the pleasant side of the age, and there was a pleasant side. The intention of this book was to focus on the other side of the coin and do a bit of muckraking. In that, it succeeds, but as a result you don't get the full picture of the Gilded Age. There were some good parts, few though they are when compared with other periods in American history.
Personal note: This was one of granddaddy's books, and I used to look at it all the time when visiting the grandparents when I was a kid in high school or thereabouts. It's broken up into short segments a page or two each, and I would cherry-pick what I wanted to check out. This was my first time reading it through from cover to cover, and it's a shame I waited so long. Grandma was nice enough to give it to me a couple of years ago when she was thinning things out to downsize to a new place. Anyway, anything that reminds me of granddaddy is great, but I tried not to let that influence my rating. This really is a four-star book.
October 22, 2016
Anybody who enjoys reading about history knows that life is improving around the world with simply mind blowing speed. Unfortunately Bettmann concentrates completely on the U.S. Many books could be dedicated to the fact that life in the U.S. attracted folks from all over the world despite how terrible life was, compared to the standards of future generations. This book doesn't speak about how life is improving (a topic I enjoy) but simply enumerates how life really sucked between about 1870 to 1900. About 200 pages but with photos and illustrations on every page. A slow reader (like myself) could knock it out in one sitting. Bettmann dedicates 1 or 2 pages per topic. Every page will make one thankful for how much life has improved in every measurable way since, from sanitation, to medicine, to the treatment of the mentally ill.
Most of the illustrations are drawings or cartoons from the time. I found the few photos to be more powerful, such as the lynching of African Americans. It can be claimed the drawings were embellished as propaganda from the era. Photos are more real.
An example of observations from the end: Oliver Wendell Holmes visited New York City and took a trip to Central Park from the other side of the city at the cost of $4. He wrote, "for the mass of people, the park might have been 100 miles away, too distant even for an annual outing." That is to say a trip across a given city was the equivalent of a week's pay for the average person.
Most of the illustrations are drawings or cartoons from the time. I found the few photos to be more powerful, such as the lynching of African Americans. It can be claimed the drawings were embellished as propaganda from the era. Photos are more real.
An example of observations from the end: Oliver Wendell Holmes visited New York City and took a trip to Central Park from the other side of the city at the cost of $4. He wrote, "for the mass of people, the park might have been 100 miles away, too distant even for an annual outing." That is to say a trip across a given city was the equivalent of a week's pay for the average person.
January 25, 2015
Bettmann curated a collection of illustrations and pictures from "the good old days" which in this book is basically the late 19th century. This book includes lots of great pieces from that collection that attempt to break through the nostalgic viewpoint that these were idyllic simpler days. Covers everything from the absolute disgusting mess that was horse drawn travel, the misery of frontier life, terrible medicine, horrible schools, drug abuse, and all the other bad stuff that gets edited out by our modern Luddites.
March 26, 2012
Well put together, but terribly depressing...
April 23, 2022
I picked this up on someone’s recommendation, expecting to find comparative death rates, disease rates and other data. But it was written by Otto Bettmann, a German immigrant who started the Bettmann Archives of photos and visual art, so it’s replete with images of life at the turn of the 20th Century.
There is some data:
• New York City had 150,000 horses at its peak (before motor vehicles) and they produced 20 to 25 pounds of poop per day. Which had to be cleaned up and which resulted in blowing dust and insects.
• Railroads in 1890 killed one employee out of every 306 and injured one of 30. There were 749,301 people employed by the railroads in 1890 and 2,451 deaths. By 1900 there would be 2,675 railroad employees killed.
• Traveling on the railroads was also not safe: in 1890 there were 10,000 deaths among passengers, with another 80,000 injuries.
• Child labor counts were 700,000 children in 1870, rising to 1,752,187 in 1890 – mostly in mills in the South.
• Food in the late 1800s absorbed half of low incomes, which included most workers.
• Food adulteration was common. A New York Health Commission study in 1902 showed that 2,095 of 3,970 (52.8%) of milk was adulterated.
But the real reason to pick up this book is for illustrations and cartoons showing all aspects of American life in the years just before and just after 1900.
For those interested in what became of the Bettmann Archive, it’s now part of Getty Images but you can browse at least part of it on the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.
There is some data:
• New York City had 150,000 horses at its peak (before motor vehicles) and they produced 20 to 25 pounds of poop per day. Which had to be cleaned up and which resulted in blowing dust and insects.
• Railroads in 1890 killed one employee out of every 306 and injured one of 30. There were 749,301 people employed by the railroads in 1890 and 2,451 deaths. By 1900 there would be 2,675 railroad employees killed.
• Traveling on the railroads was also not safe: in 1890 there were 10,000 deaths among passengers, with another 80,000 injuries.
• Child labor counts were 700,000 children in 1870, rising to 1,752,187 in 1890 – mostly in mills in the South.
• Food in the late 1800s absorbed half of low incomes, which included most workers.
• Food adulteration was common. A New York Health Commission study in 1902 showed that 2,095 of 3,970 (52.8%) of milk was adulterated.
But the real reason to pick up this book is for illustrations and cartoons showing all aspects of American life in the years just before and just after 1900.
For those interested in what became of the Bettmann Archive, it’s now part of Getty Images but you can browse at least part of it on the Internet Archives Wayback Machine.
January 27, 2011
From squatters to pollution, medical care, child labor, lynching and juvenile delinquents Otto L. Bettmann takes us on a tour of the past that will keep you turning the pages while amusing you at the same time. Sort of like an illustrated The Harper's Index Book of the times gone by with a little 2 pg chapter on each topic .
The author takes the time period between the end of the civil war and the early 1900s and examines the reality of the times complete with illustrations and the occasional horrifying statistic or nasty anecdote in an effort to compete with contemporary nostalgic views of the past.
I forgot how much I liked this book! This is my second copy, I missed having it around so much I ordered another one for my Dad's library so I could read it while I am with him!
The author takes the time period between the end of the civil war and the early 1900s and examines the reality of the times complete with illustrations and the occasional horrifying statistic or nasty anecdote in an effort to compete with contemporary nostalgic views of the past.
I forgot how much I liked this book! This is my second copy, I missed having it around so much I ordered another one for my Dad's library so I could read it while I am with him!
May 24, 2017
The main characters were the people of the guilded age. They were going through tough times like yellow fever or not having medicine that we would to day. This was in the United States and Europe during the guilded age. The timeline is roughly late 1800's to early 1900's.
In this book it talked about how teachers were treated by the students. "Miss Etta A. Barstow, a young schoolteacher, stoned to death by her pupils in Canton, Massachusetts, October 8, 1870." Page 159. This shocked me because I thought that teachers wouldn't have to go through such an ordeal as this during this time period. Alot of the teacher's were close or even put to death because of their students.
In this book it talked about how teachers were treated by the students. "Miss Etta A. Barstow, a young schoolteacher, stoned to death by her pupils in Canton, Massachusetts, October 8, 1870." Page 159. This shocked me because I thought that teachers wouldn't have to go through such an ordeal as this during this time period. Alot of the teacher's were close or even put to death because of their students.
January 14, 2012
A healthy corrective for those inclined to sentimentalize the past, particularly since we seem to be heading into a replay of the Gilded Age, with our politicians and their enablers seemingly determined to plunge us once again into that era's omnipresent corruption, inequality, and hardship. I'm taking off a star for Bettmann's often overheated tone and tendency to make oversimplified blanket pronouncements about the various subjects under discussion, but for the most part the wealth of photographs and illustrations he uses to make his points almost make up for it.
November 3, 2016
A very sympathetic and brutally honest look into "the good old days", specifically the Victorian era of American life ~1870s -1900s. Brief descriptions into the homestead, working conditions, prevalence of drug abuse and alcoholism, dreary schools and horrific living standards in the slums --it paints a mighty grim picture. Next time someone waxes poetic about this time period, shove this book in their face and tell them to put a sock in it because their nostalgia is all hot air and no substance.
July 10, 2007
The author asks us to face our past withour nostalgia, while he reports upon humanity's state of being in the era after the civil war. I live in danger of being swept into the past by the romanticism of looking at life as memory; waxing about what it might be like, rather than attending to the miseries that accompany that life. This book is chock-full of rare and hilarious engravings from the time. Because I need to remember that I live HERE, IN THIS MOMENT
September 22, 2010
This was an interesting book that I think suffered a little from dry writing. After a few chapters the author's formula became very obvious, i.e. "Food: Most people think that back in the good old days people used to eat ________, but really they ate __________ and it often killed them. Travel: Most people think that back in the gold old days people would romantically travel by ____________, but really it was __________ and it often killed them. Work: etc...."
August 22, 2012
Although my research was for England and this books deals with New York in the Victorian age, I still found this book to be pertainant to my research. Some really good information in here along with actual illustrations for the time period. This book gives a good overview of the bleakness of the times but with only one page per subject, more indepth research may be needed by some. Over all though, a really interesting book.
April 17, 2013
My Mom wanted me to read this book. It was very interesting and filled with lots of information on how terribly hard it was to live "in the good old days". I made it through 3/4 of the book and then couldn't finish it. It was incredibly depressing and it was starting to really get to me. I give it 4 stars because it really was a very good and interesting book, but way, way, way too depressing for my taste.
April 28, 2009
The info was very interesting, and pieced in easily digestible chuncks. No information overload, it got right to the facts.
This book was good. However, it only focused on the years 1860-1900. Would have liked to see more Pre-Civil was anecdotes.
If anyone ever talks about the good old days, think twice. They were terrible!
This book was good. However, it only focused on the years 1860-1900. Would have liked to see more Pre-Civil was anecdotes.
If anyone ever talks about the good old days, think twice. They were terrible!
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April 10, 2009This is a primer. Some of the things that are discussed in this book are familiar, and others are a little credulous, without real discussion of variant versions.
Still, it's a good start, and a useful corrective to nostalgia by people who have no real memory of the historical times chronicled (which, let's face it, is all of us, by now.)
Still, it's a good start, and a useful corrective to nostalgia by people who have no real memory of the historical times chronicled (which, let's face it, is all of us, by now.)
February 10, 2011
This is one of the first books that I ever bought for myself, sometime in the mid 1970's. Even as a mere lad I was something of a skeptic, and Bettmann wrote a fairly good, if somewhat anecdotal, revisionist look at American history between 1865 and 1910, the period often categorized in a nostalgic haze as "The Good Old Days".
May 18, 2011
This was an excellent peek into some of the realities of the Gilded Age: the dirt, the grime, pollution, crime, terrible education systems, blah blah blah. Very insightful and written with a humourous style that keeps it from being totally depressing. I also really enjoyed the period illustrations that he used that were caricatures of what the people were dealing with in those days.
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