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Read The Undefeated by George Paloczi-Horvath. He's a 20th century writer who lived through the tail end of the feudal system in Hungary. The lives of the peasa

Read The Undefeated by George Paloczi-Horvath. He's a 20th century writer who lived through the tail end of the feudal system in Hungary. The lives of the peasants were not great. They were mal-nourished and lived at the whims of their lords.

pietrovismara 5y ago
> The lives of the peasants were not great. They were mal-nourished and lived at the whims of their lords. Replace "peasants" with "working class" and "lords" with "employers and landlords" and you could apply the exact same statement to 38 million people in the US alone[0]. - [0]: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america
- chromaton 5y ago
  A very different situation in degree. The nobility in Hungary considered the peasants to be sub-human. This was partly because they were physically distinct from the upper classes. This, in turn, was because they didn't have enough to eat, though the nobles didn't recognize that. Also, the high-born were free to rape and kill peasants with no repercussions. Like I say, read the book.
  - pietrovismara 5y ago
    > The nobility in Hungary considered the peasants to be sub-human. Honestly even this statement would probably apply to our society as well if you'd replace nobility with the "ruling class", but I get your point. Obviously there are big differences between then and today and I don't want to minimize those, although I feel even though the "implementation details" have changed a lot (no more free raping and killing thankfully - but only if you exclude submerged stories like the Epstein case), structurally our society still works similarly.
mappu 5y ago
I would also recommend Peasants (1897) by Chekov, a very stark depiction of agricultural poverty. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Witch_and_Other_Stories/Peasants https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Witch_and_Other_Stories/P...

pietrovismara 5y ago

> The lives of the peasants were not great. They were mal-nourished and lived at the whims of their lords. Replace "peasants" with "working class" and "lords" with "employers and landlords" and you could apply the exact same statement to 38 million people in the US alone[0]. - [0]: https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america

chromaton 5y ago
A very different situation in degree. The nobility in Hungary considered the peasants to be sub-human. This was partly because they were physically distinct from the upper classes. This, in turn, was because they didn't have enough to eat, though the nobles didn't recognize that. Also, the high-born were free to rape and kill peasants with no repercussions. Like I say, read the book.
- pietrovismara 5y ago
  > The nobility in Hungary considered the peasants to be sub-human. Honestly even this statement would probably apply to our society as well if you'd replace nobility with the "ruling class", but I get your point. Obviously there are big differences between then and today and I don't want to minimize those, although I feel even though the "implementation details" have changed a lot (no more free raping and killing thankfully - but only if you exclude submerged stories like the Epstein case), structurally our society still works similarly.

mappu 5y ago

I would also recommend Peasants (1897) by Chekov, a very stark depiction of agricultural poverty. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Witch_and_Other_Stories/Peasants https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Witch_and_Other_Stories/P...