People harken back to some golden age before the industrial revolution, oblivious to the fact that people died from things like tuberculosis (Henry David Thoreau) and tetanus (his brother).

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In smoking's golden age, before the Surgeon General spoiled the fun, serious smokers would don embroidered and tasseled smoking caps and cozy smoking jackets.

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In his view this was the Golden Age of cowboy boots before mechanization and mass production became the norm.

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The great corporate labs were housed at companies like 3M, Eastman Kodak, General Electric and DuPont, and science historians consider the 1930s through the 1950s their golden age--before deadlines for profit-making became shorter and lab budgets were cut.

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Equally distorting is the myth of a Golden Age, a lost world of happy families before modern society did its damage.

ECONOMIST: The silence of the lambs

Today's Golden Age tends to be the 1950s, recalled as a high point for families before television, divorce and career women spoiled everything: when good children did their homework, Mummy cooked supper, and afterwards they all played Monopoly.

ECONOMIST: The silence of the lambs | The