Singing Away the Harvest in the Twelve Tables

0 Commentsby Bradley Skeen  ·  03/30/10

The idea of progress—the constant expansion of wealth and knowledge and supposedly therefore human happiness and well being—is so embedded in Western culture, especially American culture, that it can simply seem a truism, but it is an idea created by the Industrial Revolution. The sudden increase in human productivity brought about by industrialization changed the fundamental conditions of living and the fundamental way people experienced and hence thought about the world. For the first time food, possessions, shelter, and everything necessary for life was available in abundance. The view of the world held in classical antiquity was quite different.

Read More