Overall the paper argues for dialogue rather than deference with this important work in the cultural history of transport. It works with the idea of ‘traumatic shock’ to makes some suggestions hinting at a more creative engagement with his work. The paper then continues with a discussion which reflects on the conceptual basis of Schivelbusch’s approach.
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In order to develop this argument, the following two sections examine in turn key themes of ‘panoramic perception’ and ‘the machine ensemble’. This paper argues that The Railway Journey has both enabled and constrained study of the cultural history of railways within transport history. Writing in the late 1970s Schivelbusch raised a series of issues which transformed our understanding of the railway’s place within cultural histories of modernity. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas we return. Foster once wrote, Railway terminals are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. The culturally informed approach to histories of technology adopted by Schivelbusch has played an important role enabling railway historians to recognise the broader cultural and intellectual contexts in which the railway has been experienced historically. The Railway Journey by Wolfgang Schivelbusch. It is quoted and referenced widely by social and cultural historians of the nineteenth century and by historians of travel and transport. It is hard to dispute the assertion that Wolfgang Schibvelbusch's book originally published in 1977 as The Railway Journey: trains and travel in the 19th Century (translated from German by Anselm Hollo) has become a landmark in railway history. Neuchatel, Suisse: Editions Alphil-Presses universitaires suisses, pp. Yearbook of Transport, Travel and Mobility (T2M), 3. Mobility in History: reviews and reflections. In: Norton, Peter Mom, Gijs Milward, Liz and Flonneau, Mathieu eds. Perception, reception and representation: Wolfgang Schivelbusch and the cultural history of travel and transport. Stimulus Shield: or, the Industrialized Consciousness Railroad Accident/ "Railway Spine' and Traumatic Neurosis
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World Machines: The Steam Engine, the Railway, and the ComputerĮxcursus. Now updated with a new preface, The Railway Journey is an invaluable resource for readers interested in nineteenth-century culture and technology and the prehistory of modern media and digitalization. As a history of the surprising ways in which technology and culture interact, this book covers a wide range of topics, including the changing perception of landscapes, the death of conversation while traveling, the problematic nature of the railway compartment, the space of glass architecture, the pathology of the railway journey, industrial fatigue and the history of shock, and the railroad and the city.īelonging to a distinguished European tradition of critical sociology best exemplified by the work of Georg Simmel and Walter Benjamin, The Railway Journey is anchored in rich empirical data and full of striking insights about railway travel, the industrial revolution, and technological change. In a highly original and engaging fashion, Schivelbusch discusses the ways in which our perceptions of distance, time, autonomy, speed, and risk were altered by railway travel. InThe Railway Journey, Schivelbusch examines the origins of this industrialized consciousness by exploring the reaction in the nineteenth century to the first dramatic avatar of technological change, the railroad. In The Railway Journey, Schivelbusch examines the origins of this industrialized consciousness by exploring the reaction in the nineteenth century to the first dramatic avatar of technological change, the railroad. In The Railway Journey, Schivelbusch examines the origins of this industrialized consciousness by exploring the reaction in the nineteenth century to the first dramatic avatar of technological change, the railroad. But this was not always the case as Wolfgang Schivelbusch points out in this fascinating study, our adaptation to technological change-the development of our modern, industrialized consciousness-was very much a learned behavior. The impact of constant technological change upon our perception of the world is so pervasive as to have become a commonplace of modern society.