Were Castles the Original Military-Industrial Complex? With Dan Jones

Hello, I'm Mia Sorenti, and welcome to Intelligence Squared, the podcast about ideas that matter. In each episode, we speak to some of the world's most interesting thinkers, not simply about what they've written or created. But about the ideas that drive their work and why they matter now. Castles could look permanent, even inevitable. Stone walls, towers, and battlements fixed in the landscape. But everyone began with a choice. Someone decided what needed defending, who should be kept out, and how power ought to look. So What can fortification tell us about power around the world?

My guest today is historian and broadcaster Dan Jones. Dan is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and trustee of historic royal palaces. And he's also the host of the This Is History podcast and The Secrets of Great British Castles documentary series. Now in a new book, Castles, a fortified history of the world, the He explores across more than three thousand years of castle history. The book asks what these buildings reveal about warfare, status, survival, and imagination.

Dan, welcome to Intelligence Squared. How nice to talk to you. Thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. So You have described this book as kind of beginning with a childhood fascination. So what was it about castles that fascinated you as a child and why did you want to return to this topic as a historian?

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