The 1960s saw a great revival of interest
in the peasant lifestyles of the past, as part of a general trend
of a return to the countryside, and a desire for authenticity.
This was often largely a consumerist phenomenon, noticeable in
the proliferation of restaurants disguised as traditional hostelries,
and a booming trade in old household utensils or agricultural
implements, offered at grossly inflated prices. While it might
appear to be part of the same tendency, the establishment of folk
museums dedicated to the rural world actually marked an effort
to reject the consumerist approach and try to understand exactly
what life in the countryside was like in days gone by.
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