within the last month or two just a brilliant book

出版了一本不错的书
showing that ordinary families made all sorts of sacrifices

书中讲的是十七世纪中叶一些普通家庭
to try to improve their lives

做出了各种牺牲
beginning the middle of the seventeenth century,

试图改变他们的生活
participating in this consumer culture,

他们参与到消费文化中
buying soap, buying forks, and that kind of thing.

买香皂叉子等等生活用品
But these big-time economic changes,

但是对于这些摧枯拉朽的经济变革来说
the nineteenth century is the crucial period in the whole thing.

十九世纪是一段十分重要的时期
The disappearance of the grain riot as a form of popular protest

粮食暴动作为公众抗议的一种形式消失了
is a fantastic demonstration of that fact.

就很好地证明了这件事
You don't want to complicate the thing

你们不用把事情复杂化
or undermine the validity of what I've said by imagining,

也不用通过想象质疑我所说的内容