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Wed 3 Sep, 2008 06:33 am
There were, in the first decades of the nineteenth century, many people who viewed their own unfamiliarity with the problems concerned as a serious shortcoming and were anxious to redress it
In the above sentence phrase ''first decades of the nineteenth century'' is puzzling to me, up to what year could be considered in that phrase if we were to write it in numerals? 18xx?
Thank you.
@pumpjockey,
I'd say that "the first decades of the nineteenth century" would be 1800 to about 1830. It's a rather vague expression.