People who lived in those times were equiped with the skills to survive them. If we get thrown back into a world without electricity due to an EMP or CME, the first few decades will be chaos while the average person learns how to survive, or not..

In other words, it won't be like we simply go back to the 1800s and have to produce and create using that tech, generations would have to learn all the prerequisites to even build the tools required to live.