I agree with you completely that people think living in some past generation would somehow give them relief from the present age. Well let me say that just because you've read a book or two about life in a different time period, don't think life or people were any better. I've personally lived in two centuries and two millennia and can tell you life and people in the 50's was not "Happy Days" and "Beaver Cleaver". The 60's weren't any better or worse. So were the 70's, 80's or 90's. Cops took bribes, politicians lined their pockets, big corporations ran the government who in tern governed us. And US, well we just kept our head down trying not to "rock the boat" and make a few shekels for ourselves. What else can the little guy do? When do read books about the past, I read books written in the particular century the were written in especially diaries and what I've found is that nothing changes. Read Flavius Josephus war, history and people don't change just the electronics.