A staff member will lead a book discussion at the Des Plaines History Center on Four lost cities : a secret history of the urban age by Annalee Newitz. Books are available at the 3rd floor info desk in the public library approximately 60 days in advance.

Four lost cities : a secret history of the urban age by Annalee Newitz

A quest to explore some of the most spectacular ancient cities in human history--and figure out why people abandoned them. Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy's southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today. Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers--slaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers--who built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia.