I find history so much more interesting when generational archetypes are overlayed on top. I was just reading an article about Caleb Carr’s death. (I loved “The Alienist” and “Killing Time.”)
The article mentioned, among other things, one of his books in which he displayed deep knowledge of the dark side of the life of the poor in NYC in the late 1800s.
The article says, “Forced to use whatever means they could … to survive on their own, such children were more completely on their own than anyone unfamiliar with the New York City ghettos of 1896 could possibly imagine.”
So, in 1896, the generation that is the same as today’s GenXers (the Lost generation, born 1883 through 1900) would have been 13 and under, and just like today’s Xers were left to rather feral existences.
