Join Amazon Prime and ship Two-Day for free and Overnight for $3.99. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
111 used & new from $0.01

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible!
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.
 
  

The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! (Paperback)

by Otto Bettmann (Author) "WHEN THE CIVIL WAR ENDED, the American North was fully mobilized for industry, and forests of smokestacks had grown along with its swelling cities..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Gilded Age, Civil War (more...)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)

List Price: $16.95
Price: $11.53 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Thursday, July 16? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
26 new from $8.94 85 used from $0.01
Also Available in: List Price: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback 3 used & new from $33.93
Unknown Binding (1st) 15 used & new from $2.94

Best Value

Buy The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! and get Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! + Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans
Buy Together Today: $30.30

Show availability and shipping details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life, 1876-1915 (The Everyday Life in America Series, Vol. 4)

Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life, 1876-1915 (The Everyday Life in America Series, Vol. 4)

by Thomas J. Schlereth
4.3 out of 5 stars (13)  $12.75
Black Like Me

Black Like Me

by John Howard Griffin
4.7 out of 5 stars (164)  $9.89
The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840 (Everyday Life in America)

The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840 (Everyday Life in America)

by Jack Larkin
4.9 out of 5 stars (7)  $11.66
The Expansion of Everyday Life, 1860-1876

The Expansion of Everyday Life, 1860-1876

by Daniel E. Sutherland
4.0 out of 5 stars (5)  $15.25
Everyday Life in Early America

Everyday Life in Early America

by David F. Hawke
4.5 out of 5 stars (8)  $11.70
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This book explains why the "good old days" were only good for a priviledged few and why they were unrelentingly hard for most. Sobering, actually. Check it out.

From the Inside Flap
This book explains why the "good old days" were only good for a priviledged few and why they were unrelentingly hard for most. Sobering, actually. Check it out.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Random House; fourth printing edition (October 12, 1974)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394709411
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394709413
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #301,823 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Inside This Book (learn more)

Citations (learn more)
This book cites 49 books:
See all 49 books this book cites


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below.

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
Help others find this product — tag it for Amazon search
No one has tagged this product for Amazon search yet. Why not be the first to suggest a search for which it should appear?

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

41 Reviews
5 star:
 (24)
4 star:
 (10)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (41 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reality Check - Not "Anti-US" at all, April 7, 2004
Otto Bettmann's "The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible!" is really kick to the head in terms of establishing reality with folks who think everything was so much better and more simple in the "good old days."

Filled with interesting graphics and drawings, this book covers all the bases from food safety to crime to public education. Barely a sacred cow is left untouched.

I've owned this book for more than ten years and it never fails to catch my interest when I pick it up again. I've also shown it to many of my friends and even given it as a gift.

As for this notion of "anti-US," this seems a bit simplistic. The author's intention seems pretty clear - to establish 19th century America as a pretty dangerous place to live. There are few, if any, comparisons to Europe. It's not intended to be a book about how "bad the US is compared to country X." No, this is about just telling it like it is (or rather, was). Being honest about our past does us no harm. Indeed, it allows us to be become even better in the future. It's called learning from your mistakes. And Bettman's book is an excellent place to start learning.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I remember back in the good ole days........, June 23, 2001
As a student many of my friends were required to read this book for History class, I myself enjoyed the book so much I bought a copy to keep even though I didn't take the class. Much of the book focuses on letting readers understand what society was like over a hundred years ago and how things we complain about today were just as much a problem in the past. The book features chapters on immigration, health, food, medical care and many other issues of the day.

Many of the chapters will make you cringe as you learn that horses created much more pollution then cars ever did or that meat packing companies often used diseased or sickly cows and pigs. The chapters on education bring light to modern viewers that delinquency and school violence were not unknown and in one instance a young teacher was killed by her on students.

The book features wonderfully drawn illustartions that bring life to the world of our grandparents and how we should be glad to have clean roads, safe food and laws to protect consumers from fraud and deceit. A great book that all students should read and enjoy

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Owning This Book Is Like Owning Your Own Time Machine, September 19, 2001
By Joseph L Burke (Bradenton, FL USA) - See all my reviews
I am addicted to stories about time travel and I have a collection of them. This book is wonderful in that, instead of sentimental twaddle, conjecture, and picturesque rose-colored-glasses stories of the past, you really get to know what times were like in "The Good Old Days' - and - you'll thank your lucky stars that you are living now and not then. I was fascinated and horrified at the details of everyday life a century ago. I don't know how the people of that era survived and I now know why a lot of them didn't. A real eye-opener!!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Nostalgia... it isn't what it used to be
Nostalgia being a stubborn human sentiment, it's not surprising that once an era has passed beyond living memory, it acquires a rosy hue. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rose Keefe

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book for both old and young
This is the second copy I have lost. People get it and want to keep it. I'll have to buy a third. It tells you what the "Good Old Days" were really like. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Bill376

4.0 out of 5 stars The Forgotten Horrors of Those "Good Old Days"
Otto Bettmann's book is not a coherent history, social, political, or otherwise. It is not intended to be. Read more
Published 11 months ago by D. Edward Farrar

5.0 out of 5 stars knee jerk reactions
I have to laugh at those reviews who seem so defensive about the merits of 19th century America. Being a younger nation with vast areas of wilderness and rough frontier, Americans... Read more
Published 18 months ago by E. paull

5.0 out of 5 stars Lanny North
Having been raised in rural America in the 1940's by Grandparents, I have always had at least a foot in the world into which they were born and raised. Read more
Published on May 6, 2007 by M. North

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting facts about the past

This book is filled with "fun facts" about the past: from cooking methods, to garbage collecting, to pollution in the past, etc... Read more
Published on March 23, 2007 by Lin

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks!
I have been trying to get this book for several years. Thanks for having it and sending it so quickly and in such good shape.
Published on January 9, 2007 by Rosemarie Greene

4.0 out of 5 stars Terribly Interesting
A chronicle of the horrors of the 19th century, a time when filth, disease, crime, and overcrowding was rampant in American urban areas. Read more
Published on December 3, 2006 by The Comtesse DeSpair

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and interesting book
I was given this book when I was a child (which I suppose would be considered the "good old days" by many a contemporary child) and found it both intersting and informative. Read more
Published on October 27, 2006 by D. A. Langdon

3.0 out of 5 stars The Statue of Liberty might've wept
While reading THE GOOD OLD DAYS - THEY WERE TERRIBLE, one could forgive the thought that the tired, poor, huddled masses were better off back in the Old Country. Read more
Published on May 12, 2006 by Joseph Haschka

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
New! See all customer communities, and bookmark your communities to keep track of them.
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


   
Explore more


Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


So You'd Like to...


Look for Similar Items by Category


Cut Wood Down to Size

Cut Wood Down to Size

Split wood with ease using a log splitter from the Outdoor Power & Lawn Equipment Store.

Shop all log splitters

 

Best Books of 2008

Best of 2008
Find our top 100 editors' picks as well as customers' favorites in dozens of categories in our Best Books of 2008 Store.
 

Buy Three Books, Get a Fourth Free

4-for-3 Books
Order any four eligible books under $10 and get the lowest-price book free in our 4-for-3 Books Store. See more details.
 

Don't Slip and Slide

Shop for HeatTrak heated walkway mats
Keep your walkways safe and clear of snow and ice using the HeatTrak heated walkway.

See all HeatTrak heated walkway mats

 

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Where's My Stuff?

Shipping & Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.

Continue shopping: Top Sellers
Paranoia
Paranoia by Joseph Finder
My Soul to Lose
My Soul to Lose by Rachel Vincent
Glenn Beck's Common Sense
Glenn Beck's Common Sense

Conditions of Use | Privacy Notice © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates