We forget just how poor much of Europe was only a century ago.

From Laocoon of Troy,

Italian boys, drying pasta. 1928

Click to enlarge.

It is always striking to me to see photos of western Europe 1900-1930 in the countryside or outside the upscale neighborhoods of the cities.

Undoubtedly modernity arrived in developed Europe earliest but . . . these pictures remind us that while cars and electricity and other modernities had already been introduced, much of the European population lived in straightened circumstances.  Lifestyles that were closer to the poor of the developing world today than anything in Europe.