What Were The Best Times In History To Be Alive?

What Made This Era So Great

In the years following WWII, the United States experienced unprecedented economic growth. Suddenly, blue-collar Americans could afford luxuries once considered “high-class.” Factory workers bought televisions, cars, and their own homes. Americans had higher salaries, more leisure time, and expendable income. The 40-hour work week became the norm. Most Americans also enjoyed paid vacations. At the beginning of WWII, there were eight large suburban shopping centers in the United States, but by 1960, there were 3,840. 

What Made This Era Not So Great 

Not everyone benefited from America’s rise to become the world’s leading economic superpower. African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and other minorities fought against racial prejudice, disenfranchisement, and discriminatory laws. Women who were allowed to work during the war years were expected to return to their traditional roles in households.

There were also existential threats hanging overhead. Rising tensions between the USA and Russia due to the Cold War left many Americans in fear of impending atomic annihilation. 

What Made This Era So Great

In Athens, all male citizens had equal rights and freedoms, regardless of their wealth, education level, or class. Wealth was relatively well distributed throughout the population.

As a male citizen of Athens, you might find yourself taking a public bath between the father of medicine and the father of philosophy, with the father of history in queue to take your place when you are finished. Athens' freedom and peace attracted a community of scholars, including Aristotle, Plato, and Hippocrates, whose ideas became the cornerstones of Western civilization.

Theater, literature, architecture, and the arts thrived within the city. The food wasn’t bad either - a regular diet included fruit, cheese, and bread dipped in wine. Athenians drank wine with all their meals; it was the second most common beverage after water. 

What Made This Era Not So Great 

Slaves were common in Athens. Although valued slaves might have worked as tutors and officials, they had no legal rights.

Athens was a patriarchal society, so while some women were allowed to receive an education, they were expected to use their knowledge to stay home, care for children, and entertain their husbands. 

What Made This Era So Great

Ancient Egypt was way ahead of its time in science, technology, architecture, and medicine. Archaeologists and historians believe that even ordinary people had access to education, medical care, sports, and other leisure activities. They also had access to technologies that might sound familiar to us, such as pens, medicines for depression and other mental health ailments, breath mints, toothpaste, board games, and makeup.

Egypt was also a great place to be a woman, since women and men were seen as equals. Women pursued careers as priests, scribes, and doctors.

Life could not have been too bad, since the Egyptian idea of the afterlife was simply a continuation of regular day-to-day life. 

What Made This Era Not So Great 

The lavish Egyptian lifestyle was made possible through slave labor. Egyptian slaves were usually either criminals or people captured in battle. They received little mercy from Egyptians, who believed social class was predestined. 

What Made This Era So Great

During the “Mejii Restoration,” the emperor of Japan took control back from the Tokugawa clan and samurai. The new government abolished the feudal social system and built Japan into a modern country.

Within just a few decades, Japan had a word-class transportation system, an advanced education system, and a powerful army. Japan and Russia’s clashing claims in Korea led to Japan beating Russia in war. 

Japan showed Western Europe that it was a force to be reckoned with, and thus was able to trade with the West without the fear of colonial invasion. 

What Made This Era Not So Great 

The Mejii regime promoted industrialization and Western values. Groups that wished to maintain a traditional way of life suffered. Also, the rapid industrialization of the economy had an adverse effect on the environment.

Finally, after the abolishment of class privileges, the samurai lost their jobs and all their power. Some decided to become bureaucrats for the new modern government. Others were forced to find trades like everyone else in Meiji Japan, but neither of those options seemed optimal for families who were descended from the privileged class.

What Made This Era So Great

One of the best times in history to be alive was born from tragedy. After the Black Death wiped out over a third of Europe’s population, Italy experienced an economic, cultural, and artistic "rebirth" known as "the Renaissance."

Because so many people perished from the plague, workers could demand fairer treatment and higher wages. The economy rebounded, allowing arts and culture to thrive. Wealthy bankers and merchants in Italian city-states became patrons for artists, writers, architects, and scientists. For example, the Medici family of Florence sponsored Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, and Galileo, allowing them to focus on scientific discovery and artistic innovation full-time.

What Made This Era Not So Great 

Even though conditions improved slightly, the average person in Renaissance Italy was still a peasant, barely scraping by. Political power stayed concentrated among wealthy merchants and trade guilds. The luxurious lifestyle of the ruling class and the grand architectural achievements of the era were made possible through slave labor. Women remained subject to men with no political rights. 

What Made This Era So Great

By the first century CE, the Romans had conquered so much of the Western world that it seemed there was nobody left to fight with. This led to a period of peace known as the Pax Romana. 

The Roman armies kept the peace, even clearing the seas of pirates. Local rulers maintained some political autonomy, although they had to pay taxes and swear loyalty to the emperor. 

Through the great peace, the empire was able to build a grand road network through its entire territory, which sparked extensive trade, travel, and innovation.

This point of view has never been more eloquently expressed than by the historian Edward Gibbon, who wrote in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of four successive emperors, whose characters and authority commanded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty, and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws.

What Made This Era Not So Great  

Under Roman law, slaves were treated as property, not as human beings. Sometimes slaves were forced to participate in gladiatorial games, where they might be mauled by a wild animal while crowds cheered from the stands.

According to ancient accounts, Rome was a densely populated city and an incredibly stinky place to live, with animal carcasses in markets and amphitheaters, open altars for religious festivals, and sewer water flowing out of the main buildings.