What does Why Cities Exist say about How Things Work?

Agricultural surplus enabled cities because when farming produced more food than people needed, some individuals were freed from food production, could specialize in other tasks, and concentrate in urban centers that supported new technologies and institutions.

An insight from Why Cities Exist

Brewed tea became an artistic medium because the drink's foam provided a temporary surface artists could draw on, turning the beverage itself into a canvas for elaborate images.

The history of tea - Shunan Teng

Roman marine concrete grew stronger over centuries because seawater dissolves lime in the mix, which reacts with volcanic ash to precipitate interlocking aluminum‑silicate minerals (notably aluminum tobermorite) that fill pores and progressively densify and reinforce the material.

Why Roman CONCRETE Lasts 2000 Years While Ours Dies in 50

Deliberately starving the countryside functions as political control because forcing people to focus on finding daily food robs them of the cognitive bandwidth and incentives needed to organize or question the regime.

Yeonmi Park: North Korea | Lex Fridman Podcast #196

When a ruler needs few keys, concentrated rewards and a reliance on force favor ruthless actors because extracting loyalty and wealth becomes the quickest path to keep power, outcompeting those who invest in public goods.

You Would Be a Terrible Leader

Government agencies protect their institutional interests because departments derive jobs, funding, and authority from administering specific laws, so they resist data or policies that would shrink those programs and the careers tied to them.

Thomas Sowell on the Myths of Economic Inequality

Interconnected Silk Road networks spread epidemic diseases because regular movement of people, animals, and goods carried pathogens across regions, enabling pandemics like measles, smallpox, and bubonic plague to travel east–west and cause massive population loss.

The Silk Road and Ancient Trade: Crash Course World History #9

Welfare policies can weaken family formation because benefits that reward single-parent status or penalize cohabitation create incentives for people to divorce or avoid marriage to secure aid.

Thomas Sowell on the Myths of Economic Inequality

Modern global interconnectedness builds on the Silk Road because early long-distance trade, communication and institutional linkages created routes and practices that later maritime and technological advances expanded into today’s global flows.

The Silk Road: Connecting the ancient world through trade - Shannon Harris Castelo

Insight by History

More from @history's Picks