Forgotten Capitals and the Historical Lessons They Teach

By: Derek Dwight Anderson

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Buenos Aires and Cairo, London and Tokyo are known for being the epicenters of their nations, but what about Enugu, Jolo, Quetzaltenango, or Xinjing? Why did these once vibrant cultural, economic, and political centers fade from prominence? What does their experience tell us about ourselves and our world today?

In a fascinating book written to promote reflection and conversation, Derek Dwight Anderson charts the lessons of history as he investigates nine capital cities that most people don’t know. By shedding light on places that were of vital importance at some point in the past 250 years, Forgotten Capitals reveals surprising commonalities in the human experience. Nations may rise and fall, but humanity endures, thereby revealing important historical lessons for all of us to consider.

Interesting Subjects. Obvious(?) Conclusions

This book served my main purposes for choosing it, i.e. interesting stories and a checklist to remind me of topics I want to explore again in more depth. As for the conclusions presented here, my reaction was a confused, "Well yeah, obviously... or maybe I'm not grasping something?"