tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post8151811074593802205..comments2024-03-13T07:34:24.149+00:00Comments on The Age of Uncertainty: The Space AgeSteerforthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-6533521722669040962007-11-26T10:51:00.000+00:002007-11-26T10:51:00.000+00:00That's the thing. You've got to be wealthy enough ...That's the thing. You've got to be wealthy enough to afford enough servants to ensure that there is always hot water for your bath, a fire in the grate, food in the pantry (and the table at the prescribed times). Uncomfortable clothes. What sort of toilet paper did rich people have in 1907? Did everyone have a sore arse all the time? What about dandruff? Certainly most people would have been having bad hair decades. Of course, when that twing turns into a *definite* toothache, things are going to get very unpleasant.Paul M. Crayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04475049224107006434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-41723569592686565152007-10-15T22:15:00.000+00:002007-10-15T22:15:00.000+00:00I stand corrected. Overall I think 1907 was better...I stand corrected. <BR/><BR/>Overall I think 1907 was better if you were rich, healthy, heterosexual, exempt from military service and white and male. That was probably part of the problem.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-71617391089406574812007-10-15T21:07:00.000+00:002007-10-15T21:07:00.000+00:00"I wouldn't know that a devastating global conflic..."I wouldn't know that a devastating global conflict was only seven years away, so I could enjoy myself in blissful ignorance."<BR/><BR/>To be fair, many people did think there was a major conflict on the horizon - certainly the socialist left, particularly in Europe, talked about the coming war. <BR/><BR/>However, there was a recent discussion (I think in the letters page of the LRB) where a similar sentiment had been made. Someone pointed out, that someone living 100 years ago would have known a devastating war - England's villages are littered with war memorials to WW1 and WW2. But there are many memorials to those who died in the Boer war. <BR/><BR/>My copy of Field Marshal Lord Carver's (who he?) history of the Boer War, lists British casualties of almost 21,000. 7000 Boer soldiers died, plus up to 20,000 deaths in the "concentration camps". He also quotes an estimate of up to 12,000 African deaths.<BR/><BR/>While nowhere as many as in the WW1, standing at the vantage point of 1907, you certainly would know mass military death. You would probably have heard about the slave trade. Certainly you would have seen the consequences of poverty. <BR/><BR/>While I think there is much of the 21st Century I would gladly miss (can I add Climate Change to your list?) I know that if I get disease, I may well be cured, I have more democratic rights then my contemporaries 100 years ago, and as you say, I can look at Nasa pictures on the internet.Resolute Readerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05543167556221747469noreply@blogger.com