Since WW2, the story of humanity has increasingly been the story of the top 100 or so charismatic big cities. The ones that can each lay claim to an important subplot of the human story. Not necessarily the biggest ones but the ones that you instantly associate with a big story.
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But the rural countryside existed to be ruled by the cities. The Mediterranean was a story of Rome and Carthage, and then Rome and a few Greek city-states, and then just Rome. Rome was fed by Sicily and Egypt, but Rome controlled the narrative.
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Similar with China around the same time, I think. Much later, the English Civil War was cities. French Revolution was Paris and its suburbs. Even though by far the most deaths were in rural Vendee, all that anyone remembers is Madame Guillotine and the Reign of Terror in Paris.
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I'll grant economics, but not clear that they have overtaken them, in terms of narrative & political power, even now. Farmers, pastoral affiliation, "real" Americans, etc.
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