Broken Cities

"Broken Cities is a comparative sociological study of ruination, the process by which monuments, architectural sites, and urban centers decay into ruin over time. Weaving together four case studies of classical Athens, late antique Rome, medieval Baghdad, and sixteenth-century Mexico City, Devecka shows that ruination is a complex social process largely contingent on changing imperial control rather than the result of immediate (natural) catastrophic events, as popular opinion might assume"--