Projects

Grim Old Days

A collection of contemporary accounts of daily life in the past.

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: Peter Laslett’s The World We Have Lost

Chelsea Follett — Aug 14, 2025

Blog Post | War

Grim Old Days: Lauro Martines’ Furies

Chelsea Follett — Jul 1, 2025

Blog Post | Manufacturing

Grim Old Days: Virginia Postrel’s Fabric of Civilization

Chelsea Follett — Jun 10, 2025

Blog Post | Housing

Grim Old Days: Judith Flanders’s The Making of Home

Chelsea Follett — May 15, 2025

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: A. Roger Ekirch’s At Day’s Close, Part 2

Chelsea Follett — May 6, 2025

Blog Post | Environment & Pollution

Grim Old Days: Richard Hoffmann’s Environmental History of Medieval Europe

Chelsea Follett — Apr 18, 2025

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: A. Roger Ekirch’s At Day’s Close, Part 1

Chelsea Follett — Apr 3, 2025

Blog Post | Water & Sanitation

Grim Old Days: Robert Muchembled’s Cultural History of Odours in Early Modern Times

Chelsea Follett — Mar 20, 2025

Blog Post | Overall Mortality

Grim Old Days: Responses to Untimely Death in the Past

Chelsea Follett — Feb 28, 2025

Blog Post | Health & Medical Care

Grim Old Days: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

Chelsea Follett — Feb 18, 2025

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: Jane Brox’s Evolution of Artificial Light

Chelsea Follett — Jan 31, 2025

Blog Post | Violence

Grim Old Days: Anne-Marie Kilday’s History of Infanticide in Britain

Chelsea Follett — Jan 10, 2025

Blog Post | Health & Medical Care

Grim Old Days: James Wynbrandt’s Excruciating History of Dentistry

Chelsea Follett — Dec 20, 2024

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: Emily Cockayne’s Hubbub: Filth, Noise & Stench in England, 1600–1770

Chelsea Follett — Dec 6, 2024

Blog Post | Population Demographics

Grim Old Days: Pat Thane’s History of Old Age

Chelsea Follett — Oct 3, 2024

Blog Post | Water & Sanitation

Grim Old Days: James Salzman’s History of Drinking Water

Chelsea Follett — Sep 12, 2024

Blog Post | Food & Hunger

Grim Old Days: Tom Standage’s Edible History of Humanity

Chelsea Follett — Sep 4, 2024

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: Fernand Braudel’s Structures of Everyday Life

Chelsea Follett — Aug 23, 2024

Blog Post | Human Development

Grim Old Days: Kirstin Olsen’s Daily Life in 18th-Century England

Chelsea Follett — Jul 26, 2024

Blog Post | Wealth & Poverty

Grim Old Days: Patricia Crone’s Pre-Industrial Societies

Chelsea Follett — Jul 12, 2024

Blog Post | Labor & Employment

Grim Old Days: Louis B. Wright’s Everyday Life in Colonial America

Chelsea Follett — Mar 10, 2023

Blog Post | Wealth & Poverty

Grim Old Days: William Manchester’s A World Lit Only by Fire

Chelsea Follett — Mar 2, 2023