I think this conclusion results from the form of projection discussed in the article, except that you're applying it to the past. The risk is of overemphasizing even slight similarities (projecting your own circumstances onto past conditions) rather than acknowledging those things that have changed beyond all recognition.
The article actually makes the opposite assertion: that people over-emphasize the differences between the past and today, and assume that the present would be unrecognizable to people in the past.
That’s one reason I mention the Disney ride. When did we get electricity, refrigerated food, inter-continental communications? It was earlier than people assume.
Although, as William Gibson once said, "The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed". And this has always been the case. There is a difference between when something is available and when it is commonplace. While electricity was technically available in the late 19th century, even in 1930s America it wasn't available in most rural areas yet -- hence the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. And of course there are places, mainly in Africa which still don't have electricity.
