Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today's (1991)

Re:Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today'... by mrandish on Saturday October 30, 2021 @02:31PM (#29051170)

I agree that many people today tend to over-estimate the 'simple' and 'idyllic' aspects of the average pre-industrial person's day to day existence and we should be careful to remember the stark differences as well as to discount the influence of fiction and history's focus on the extraordinary, influential, wealthy and powerful.

I've always thought it would be an interesting reality TV show concept to create a historically accurate medieval village populated with well-researched, role-playing actors and then to drop a small group of modern people into that context to see how they do. I suspect the reactions of those who over-estimated the idyllic-ness of the past would make for compelling reality TV fodder.

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Re:Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today'... by sportslife on Saturday October 30, 2021 @05:02PM (#29052275)

The issue with modern people is they don't even know how to put on the old clothes. They would be technologically-illiterate trying to use complex pre-industrial tech, and so would have a very hard time, much harder than the people of the time.

There have been a number of historical reenactment shows over the years. Continual this-is-hard reax would be a bit tiresome, so usually they include lots of success.

If you want struggle, and will accept some industrialization there was "Frontier House" from PBS.

Otherwise, I recommend the "Tales of Green Valley" historical farm series and sequels for a well-informed English version. Here is the sequel "Tudor Monastery Farm" on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgZr0v9DXyK9Cc8PG0Zh...

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