When we think about historical changes we tend to think about the large, overarching ones - the kinds of events that end up in history books. We think about the downfall of the idea of the divine right of kings and the establishment of democratic form of rule. We think about rise and fall of empires - of Cairo and Athens and Rome and Berlin. We think about the discovery of the New World by Europeans and the colonization of our hemisphere as well as that of Africa. We think about the Black Death and the War to End All Wars and Neil Armstrong's one small step for a man.
And there is no doubt, of course, that these are all a part of the historical record. These things happened and they made a substantial difference in the way in which people around the world went about their lives. But there is another level to history, one that we too often forget. And it is surprising that we should do so, because it is on this level that most of us experience historical change. History happens not just in big steps, but in little baby ones as well. Little baby steps that add up to enormous changes over time.
The essay "The Transformation of Everyday Life" examines some of the changes in the everyday lives of people between the beginning and the middle of the 20th century and the middle and end of the century just ended. None of the information that is contained within this essay will surprise us per se - we all know that in 1900 there was no air travel and that in 1950 humans had not yet gone strolling on the moon. But what this essay does is allow us to see the cumulative and (on a personal level) the almost overwhelming effect of all of the small technological and cultural changes that can occur in just fifty years.
Of course, fifty years seems like a relatively long period of time - for most of us that will be a good chunk longer than half of our lives. But that is surely one of the essential points of this piece, that fifty years is well w...