Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
Buy new:
$17.27$17.27
FREE delivery: Wednesday, April 24 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $9.94
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
100% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
99% positive over last 12 months
+ $4.99 shipping
98% positive over last 12 months
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible! Paperback – October 12, 1974
Purchase options and add-ons
But this gaiety was only a brittle veneer that covered widespread turmoil and suffering. The good old days were good for but the privileged few. For the farmer, the laborer, the average breadwinner, life was an unremitting hardship. This segment of the populace was exploited or lived in the shadow of total neglect. And youth had no voice. These are the people, the mass of Americans, whose adversities this book attempts to chronicle.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherRandom House
- Publication dateOctober 12, 1974
- Dimensions6.02 x 0.63 x 9.16 inches
- ISBN-100394709411
- ISBN-13978-0394709413
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

Similar items that may ship from close to you
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Expelled during the Nazi regime from his post as Curator of Rare Books at the Prussian State Art Library in Berlin, Dr. Bettmann came to America in 1935 where he established the Archive and became widely known as a graphic historian. Among his previous publications are As We Were: Family Life in America, A Pictorial History of Medicine, Our Literary Heritage (with Van Wyck Brooks) and The Bettmann Portable Archive. Dr. Bettmann died in 1998.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House (October 12, 1974)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0394709411
- ISBN-13 : 978-0394709413
- Item Weight : 9.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.02 x 0.63 x 9.16 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #586,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #186 in History Humor (Books)
- #4,171 in Historical Study (Books)
- #17,895 in United States History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Don't think that by just staying off the streets you could avoid it : "During dry spells the pounding traffic refined the manure to dust, which blew 'from the pavement as a sharp, piercing powder, to cover our clothes, ruin our furniture and blow up our nostrils.'"
But perhaps you feel that this was mitigated by the availability of wonderful "organic" meat and produce; after all, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were virtually unknown in those days. "In the absence of electric refrigeration, perishable goods were subject to the whims of the weather. Meat and fowl for sale were simply hung on racks or placed on market counters. The New York Council of Hygiene reported in 1869 tha the foods thus displayed 'undergo spontaneous deterioration...becoming absolutely poisonous..."
Nor were folks in the country spared from the misery, as the book illustrates. Get a copy and read about this and a lot more. You will be glad that you are living now and not then, our current problems notwithstanding.
Yes we are a nation of immigrants but we also have a long history of those already here looking down on the newest wave of citizens, especially if they are culturally different. The US has always had a confict between ideals and reality. We aren't perfect, never were and are still looking to perfect the system. This book is NOT meant to be a scholarly read but many of the sources are primary ones from US publications and give one pause. Critics with blinders on prove that we continue to repeat the past in some ways as some issues in the book are nothing new they just reappear in different ways. One critic referred to "polluted beaches" we have them now!!! I used this book in my classroom as most US History general texts have minimal space to present the full story. Their surface survey leaves little room to explore the richness of the human condition and the stories of ordinary people which is always the most interesting and easiest to relate to .
Delightfully written, and snack sized for anyone. A series of chapters with little 1-2 page articles (and being Mr Bettmann of the actual Bettmann Archives, illustrated with contemporary examples supporting the text) on each topic. Great bed-time reading for anyone. Happy dreams!












