It is easy to see pre-World War I England in both the Shire and the Hobbits. Things valued by rural England at the turn of the century are the same things valued by hobbits -- love of land, love of family, love for one another, and love of king and country. (In the Shire, the head of each family represents the king)
The danger England faced in both wars parallels the danger faced by the Shire. The reaction of Tolkien and his boyhood friends to that danger mirrors the reaction of Hobbits when confronted by the same danger. Both the soldier in the trenches of France and the Hobbits face a superior enemy with resolve and courage. They summon up strength they do not know they possess and do what has to be done to defend their home.
But in the first chapter, as we prepare for the party, we see the Hobbits and the Shire without the stormclouds of war on the horizen. What occupies their time are silly things. A birthday party, gossip, strained relations, and greedy relatives.
After 9/11, a columnist wrote that the last decade found America consumed with "petty" things. After 9/11, that changed. Everything was different. New definitions were imposed. (For example: now when I think of heros, I think of firefights and policemen running to their deaths at the WTC. I think of passengers calling home to say I love you before overpowering hi-jackers and driving a plane into the ground)
The Shire doesn't have the jadedness that '90's America had because Tolkien did not know those times. Instead it has the ease of country living. The values and the things that would preoccupy a society before "war and modernization" drove away the innocence and replaced it with cynicism.
In the first chapter, we see the Hobbits untried by danger, terror, fear, and war. When the important things in life was whether you would be invited to the big party or not.
That will change. The crucible of events will break them open and expose what lies at the heart of the race...but that is a future they can't even envision. In Chapter 1... the ring is just a bauble to make you invisible so you can hide from the Sackville-Baggins, Bilbo is 111, Frodo is 33, and Gandalf has come to visit.
"At ninety-nine they began to call him well-preserved; but unchanged would have been nearer the mark."Whew! What amazing irony and it's only the third paragraph.
"It will have to be paid for," they said. "It isn't natural, and trouble will come of it!"
That was all really well said... Thanks everyone!... I have my hands full just keeping up with all these invitations and requests and arrangements!