The impact of constant technological change upon our perception of the world is so pervasive as to have become a commonplace of modern society. 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. 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 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. 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.

Belonging 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. 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.


沃尔夫冈•希弗尔布施（Wolfgang Schivelbusch, 1941—）

德国历史学家、文化研究学者，1972年于柏林自由大学获博士学位，研究领域为文学、社会学和哲学，现居纽约、柏林。沃尔夫冈是一名独立研究者，不供职于任何一家研究机构，他以精神史研究路径而被人广泛熟知，在观念史与文化史研究领域也有所建树，他将埃利亚斯视为主要的影响以及灵感来源之一。2003年于柏林获海因里希•曼艺术学院奖，2013年于汉堡获莱辛城市奖。

他的主要作品有：《远距离关系：法西斯主义、国家社会主义、罗斯福新政（1933—1939）》《铁幕之前：柏林的思想生活（1945—1948）》《光芒，闪烁和幻想：20世纪的电气照明》《光明：19世纪人造光的历史》等。