I remembered so little I may as well not have read it before. I certainly didn't recall any of the most dramatic events, nor did I catch how sour and defeatist Jack Finney's outlook really is. Time and Again is the opposite of utopian. He hates the modern world & drops out into the 1880s, while making sure (though I'm not sure it makes sense) that no one else can do the same. There's no indication that he's going to try to improve the world, in either time period. I enjoyed the historical aspect & I can see that the easiest way to write about the past is to simply put a modern person there to say gee whiz, rather than really try to get at the attitudes and beliefs, sans anachronisms.
Anyway, I don't believe the 1880s—or any era—is a Golden Age, except in retrospect.
Anyway, I don't believe the 1880s—or any era—is a Golden Age, except in retrospect.