Urban decline and renewal

Modern Europe’s total urban population only surpassed the total urban population of the Roman Empire around the time of Isaac Newton, a whole 16 centuries after the ancient peak (which implies that the rate of urbanization was lower, as 17th century Europe had over 100 million inhabitants, a substantially larger population than estimated for the Early Roman Empire, whose population has estimates ranging from 50 to 75 million).

From Rafael Guthmann.

Weirdly, this reminded me of reading Dr. Zhivago. One of the things I'll always remember about that book is the way society deteriorated around Dr. Zhivago.

2023-08-18