The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past - Hardcover

by Chelsea Follett (Author)

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

Trying to imagine the preindustrial past might conjure the image of an idyllic country village with pristine air and residents merrily dancing around maypoles. The healthy, peaceful, and prosperous people in this fantasy of pastoral bliss do not realize that their contented, leisurely lives will soon be disrupted by the story's villain: the dark smokestacks of the Industrial Revolution, what the poet William Blake called "satanic mills." Yet such rose-colored views of history bear no resemblance to reality.

The preindustrial world was far more gruesome than modern minds can fathom--marked by unthinkable poverty, drudgery, cruelty, and pain. From child abuse and famine-induced cannibalism to bloodletting and streets that doubled as open sewers, ordinary existence was fraught with horrors. The Grim Old Days indulges the reader's morbid curiosity about everyday history with firsthand accounts and shocking facts, meticulously researched and laid out in grotesque detail. The book strips away romantic illusions to confront the harsh reality of preindustrial life--one that most people today would not wish upon their worst enemies.

Author Biography

Chelsea Follett is a research fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, working with HumanProgress.org, a project of the Cato Institute that seeks to educate the public on the global improvements in well-being by providing free empirical data on long-term developments. She is the author of Centers of Progress: 40 Cities That Changed the World. Her writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, Forbes, The Hill, Business Insider, National Review, Washington Examiner, and Reason, among other outlets. She was named to Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2018 in law and policy. Follett earned a BA magna cum laude in government and English from the College of William & Mary, as well as an MA in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, where she focused on international relations and political theory. She lives in Virginia with her husband and four children.