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Ep 202 - Medieval Railways feat Gareth Dennis
🕑 Added 2025-01-15 13:00:13 +0000 UTCpatrons, here is your ad-free regular episode for the week. no questions since we had an interview.
folks, we all love trains. they're great for moving people and cargo and famously not as bad as cars but did you know that the first railways and trackways were built in the Classical and Medieval eras. that's right, despite what Victorian era propaganda would have you believe, the train didn't simply appear fully formed in the English mind in the 18th century where it was then bestowed upon the rest of humanity. it does in fact have a very long and often sordid history and that's why we've brought on Rail engineer and writer Gareth Dennis to talk with us about Medieval railways, what the modern narrative about the early modern invention of trains gets wrong, and why trains are just so neat.
Gareth's most recent book, How Railways Will Fix the Future: Rediscovering the Essential Brilliance of the Iron Road, was published in November 2024, check it out! https://garethdennis.co.uk/
Comments
aldebrn
I'd love to read more about a thing Dr Janega talks about: the modern, Protestant, exceptionalist need for a savant who "came up with it" out of nowhere (~1:05:00). Because, I hate how popular that kind of story is and how hard it is to tell stories *not* like that, so I'd love to read something explaining where that crap came from and how to hasten its demise. What a lovely episode 💜
James Taylor
I am so here for this
