Otto Bettmann (1903–1998)

As you might except in a book by the owner of the Bettmann Archive, about half this book is illustrations of which less than half are photographs. Apparently the author was annoyed that most requests for his images were for happy nostalgic ones. This book is an antidote to that. Of course, most readers will likely already be aware that the progressive state of things today didn't always exist.

The only reason I looked into this book was because Robert J. Gordon credits it as the inspiration for his article that led to his book "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U. S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War." Gordon misstates the title as "The Bad Old Days."

The chapters concern air quality, traffic, housing, rural life, work conditions, crime, food and drink, health, education, travel and leisure. Subheadings are mostly quotations but it is never evident where the quotation comes from.

I came across a few cases of careless attention to detail. A humorous one was referring to the Battle of Cold Harbor as the Battle of Bar Harbor.

"The Jungle" covers much of this subject in a more compelling manner.… (meer)

Favorite new book title.

A collection of prints/drawing/advertisements from roughly 1890's all focusing on how terrible life was.

excerpt from the intro still ringing pretty true:

"I have always felt that our times have overrated and unduly overplayed the fun aspects of the past. What we have forgotten are the hunger of the unemployed, crime, corruption, the despair of the aged, the insane and the crippled. The world now gone was in no way spared the problems we consider horrendously our own, such as pollution, addiction, urban plight or educational turmoil. In most of our nostalgia books such crises are ignored, and the period's dirty business is swept under the carpet of oblivion. what emerges is a glowing picture of the past, of blue-skied meadows where children play and millionairs sip tea. If we compare this purported Arcadia with our own days we cannot but feel a jarring discontent, a sense of despair that fate has dropped us into the worst of all possible worlds. And the future, once the resort of hopeful dreams, is envisioned as an abyss filled with apocalyptic nightmares."… (meer)