The Peasants' Revolting Lives

The Peasants' Revolting Lives

by Terry Deary
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date: 01/07/2021

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The author of the Horrible Histories series tells the unpleasant truth about what the poor have endured in this sharp-witted, pull-no-punches book.


British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli once described the rich and poor as “two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.”


Today we’re well aware of the habits, thoughts, and feelings of the rich, because historians write about them endlessly. The poor, though, are largely ignored and, as a result, their contributions to our modern world are forgotten. Here, Terry Deary takes us back through the centuries with a poignant but humorous look at how life treated the ordinary people who scratched out a living at the very bottom of society. Their world was one of foul food, terrible toilets, danger, disease and death—the last usually premature. Wryly told tales of deprivation, exploitation, sickness, mortality, warfare, and religious oppression fill these pages—the teacher turned child-catcher who rounded up local waifs and strays before putting them to work; the agricultural workers who escaped the clutches of the Black Death only to be thwarted by lordly landowners; the hundreds of children who descended into the inky depths of hazardous coal mines.


You’ll discover ingenuity: how cash-strapped citizens used animal droppings for house building, how sparrow’s brains were incorporated into aphrodisiacal brews, and how extra money was made by mixing tea with dried elder leaves—and learn how courtship, marriage, sport, entertainment, education, and, occasionally, achievement briefly illuminated the drudgery. The Peasants’ Revolting Lives explores, commemorates, and celebrates the lives of those who endured against the odds. From medieval miseries to the idiosyncrasies of being a twenty-first-century peasant, tragedy and comedy sit side by side in these tales of survival in the face of hardship.

ISBN:
9781526745620
9781526745620
Category:
Social & cultural history
Format:
Epub (Kobo), Epub (Adobe)
Publication Date:
01-07-2021
Language:
English
Publisher:
Pen & Sword Books
Terry Deary

Terry Deary is one of the UK's most well known authors of children's books. With over 6 million copies of the Horrible Histories series sold in the UK alone, Terry Deary's name is a prominent feature on bookshelves across the land.

It was with great glee that Terry Deary realised, at the age of 13, that he could write. It took him another twenty years to discover he could be paid for it. Since then, Terry has written over 200 books!

Terry writes from his home in County Durham where he lives with his wife an d daughter. It takes him anything between six hours and six weeks to write a book! In writes for six days a week, so free time is rare. However when h e does have free time he enjoys acting, local cricket, supporting his beloved Sunderland United football team and running to half-marathon distance for charity.

The Horrible Histories series has been translated into twenty-five different languages, from Welsh to Russian! It has also been produced as a TV series on CBBC.

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