'Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age' by Annalee Newitz

 

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age, Annalee Newitz (3.0)

I liked the idea of this book more than the book itself. Looking at the history of the demise of 4 ancient cities with the idea of relating that to today’s cities and possible futures was intriguing. I had heard of two of the cities (Pompeii and Angkor), but was shocked to learn about Cahokia, the 1st century American Indian city with over 30,000 people at one point – which lies just across from St. Louis and was designated a National Historic Landmark before I was born! And I had never heard of it!  The fourth, Catalhoyuk, was the oldest, a city in Turkey ~9000 BCE. While I enjoyed learning more about these cities, their main linkage seemed to be that they were all deemed to be ‘lost’ (mainly by Europeans who happened to find them), though were far from it. Except for Pompeii getting covered in ash, the others faded away over centuries and were well known to those in the area, i.e. never lost. Also, I was not convinced that the author’s thesis held up through all four. Was their downfall ‘managing an enormous piece of human built infrastructure in a constantly changing environment’? And given what is happening with politics and climate now, are we headed for global urban abandonment? The argument was not convincing to me.