Textbook Sleep #55: Medieval Cities
from Textbook Sleep Hosted by Jim Nolan
The dark ages. Perfect nighttime reading. Welcome to Textbook Sleep, the Maximum-Strength Sleep Aid, where we read aloud boring public-domain textbooks to help you fall asleep. In this episode, we read Medieval Cities by French historian Henri Pirenne, first published by Princeton University Press in 1925. As Pirenne puts it, it’s “an attempt to expound, in a general way, the economic awakening and the birth of urban civilization in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.” We’ll start with Chapter III, “City Origins.” There were no Ubers, and no place to get a pumpkin spice latte, or even an iced coffee. Wireless service was terrible, as it had not yet been invented. There were also pesky plagues. My gratitude to Project Gutenberg for the text. Let us ring the official Textbook Sleep bell to usher us into an age of sleep, before we emerge into a brighter day in the morning. This recording will end quietly. Get full access to Pieces of Jim at jimnolan1.substack.com/subscribe
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