Wonderful melancholic book about the lifecycle of the four ancient/medieval cities: Chatal Huyuk, Pompeii, Angkor Wat and virtually unknown Cahokia in North America. The author suggests cycles of concentration and dispersion when the dispossessed masses bring parts of their developed culture to the new places of habitation. She predicts the same fate to our cities propelled by the climate change, mass migrations and resource wars...
There is one big difference between their civilizations and ours. In past eons, the only productive force was manpower, so that every extra unit of effort had to be compensated by extra water, food and infrastructure to accommodate the increase in manpower. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the mechanical connection between production and consumption -- to consume more one had to take it from somebody else -- has weakened to the point of unrecognizability.
The account by A. Newitz sharply contradicts the off-the-cuff assumption by Monica Smith in her Cities, that cities never die (except for, of course, Chernobyl whatbookcanbewithoutit). All the mentioned locations, Catalhoyuk, Pompeii, Angor Wat and Cahokia, were abandoned long ago and so was Troy (Hissarlik), etc.
