The Two Paths

Illustrations from an early twentieth century manual on “social hygiene.”

two_paths_women two_paths_men

Questions provoked by these images:

1. What’s the “bad literature” the young girl is reading?
2. Can you imagine sixty being a “venerable old age”? (In 1900, the life expectancy of a white male like me was forty-seven(!)—I’d be in my dotage now at the age of forty.)
3. Why do men get an extra eight years before their life falls apart?
4. Am I the only one that would love to see the return of “social hygiene” manuals?

(Via: Sociological Images )

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Church in the Age of Therapy

Matthew Loftus

In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…

Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot

Anna Farrow

On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…

The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen

Mike Aquilina

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…