Snobbery

What C.S. Lewis called the "snobbery of chronology" encourages us to presume that just because we happen to have lived after our ancestors and can read books which give us some account of what happened to them, we must also know better than them.  We certainly have more facts at our disposal.   We have more wealth, both personal and national, better technology, and infinitely more skilful ways of preserving and extending our lives.   But whether we today display more wisdom or common humanity is an open question, and as we look back to discover how people coped with the daily difficulties of existence a thousand years ago, we might also consider whether, in all our sophistication, we could meet the challenges of their world with the same fortitude, good humour, and philosophy.

'The Year 1000', Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger, Little, Brown, 1999