Just a thought from A Geography of Time

A thought from "A Geography of Time"

"It is one of the great ironies of modern times that , with all of our time-saving creations, people have less time to themselves than ever before. Life in the Middle Ages is usually portrayed as bleak and dreary, but one commodity people had more of than their successors was leisure time. Until the Industrial Revolution, in fact, most evidence suggests that people showed little inclination to work. in Europe through the Middle Ages, the average number of holidays per year was around 115 days. It is interesting to note that still today, poorer countries take more holidays, on the average than richer ones."

In referring to anthropologist Allen Johnson, Levine notes...

"Borrowing from recent economic theory, [Johnson] argues that industrialization produces an evolutionary progression from a "time surplus" to a "time affluence" to a "time famine" society, which is how he characterizes more developed countries. The ultimate effect, Johnson argues, is on the tempo of people's lives..."

Comments

[Michael W. Kruse]

There is an additional factor to this. Caloric intake was so low, general nutrition so bad, and disease so prevalent that the masses most of the time did not have the wherewithal to work at he level we do today. Economist Robert Fogel has demonstrated this in his studies, particularly "The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World." He also notes that with improved nutrition and elimination of disease we have been getting significantly taller and heavier. It just seems that our amount work keeps expanding to meet our physical capcity to work.

Thanks for drawing attention to this book. I picked up a copy at a used bookstore awhile back and had forgotten about. Looks very interesting.

[Neil]

Michael, thanks for the additional information. I certainly wouldn't want to paint an idyllic picture of the Middle Ages. I do think we could do with some "time affluence" though.