[pepsi_junkie]

Few think about it but for most people in the 19th century the world worked pretty much exactly as it did in the 9th century if you got rid of the warlords, plagues and kings. You had a plow, you raised your animals, you harvested and sold etc. The 20th century took us from horse and buggies to the moon. And along with that tech - radio, TV, airplanes, computers, etc - came the small things that really impacted peoples lives. Vaccines (the real ones), accessible cameras like the Brownie and the polaroid made it so we all had pictures of everyone in our lives, etc.

But nobody talks about stuff like athlete's foot powder or adhesive bandages, pr disposable diapers or zippers, paperback novels, tea bags, washing machines, effective insect repellents, sun screen. or, yes, feminine hygiene products. But boy can you imagine living a world where they didn't exist? 120 years ago every adult could imagine that world, because they grew up in it and were still living in it.

[SunkenCiv]

I'm pretty sure modern civilization got its earliest start with the emergence, about 300 years ago, of the bidet. 🚽🧻

[Inyo-Mono]

But nobody talks about stuff like athlete's foot powder or adhesive bandages, pr disposable diapers or zippers, paperback novels, tea bags, washing machines, effective insect repellents, sun screen. or, yes, feminine hygiene products. But boy can you imagine living a world where they didn't exist? 120 years ago every adult could imagine that world, because they grew up in it and were still living in it.

I think about things like that every time I recall stories my Grandmother, who lived with us when I was a child, told me about her childhood and young adult years. She was born in 1888.

[Repeal The 17th]

“...people in the 19th century the world
worked pretty much exactly as it did in the 9th century...”
-
I understand and agree with what you are saying.
But what changed it?
The steam engine?
the industrial revolution?