Comments on: Pictures of poverty

By: George

George — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:35:17 +0000

I have not read that book, sounds very good. I can imagine, though, that things were much worse for most people in the 13th century, than in the late 19th, when these were taken.

By: Steven Hall

Steven Hall — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:52:12 +0000

I just finished reading Pillars of the Earth (mom bought it for me for xmas) and yes, it’s amazing how things stayed unchanged for quite a long time, hence the ‘dark ages’ term I suppose – although it’s hard to imagine it was much different than these pictures show.

By: Lois Larson Hall

Lois Larson Hall — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:39:35 +0000

Wow. What great pictures, and perfect examples of what it was like for our families in the old country. I try to imagine it as I sit here at a computer in a warm, well-lit home with running water and a pantry stocked with food, a car in the driveway to take me anywhere I want to go to buy anything I want to buy at a mega-store having everything I could ever want or need. We take for granted living in absolute luxury in comparison to the peasant class of Norway and/or any other of the early ethnic societies. I’m reading a fascinating book (The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett), set in England during the cathedral building era of 1100’s, but with a little imagination easily translateable to what daily life would have been like in Norway then and even into the 1800’s for the peasant class.