Ruins can result from numerous causes. Droughts, hurricanes, fire, war, the silting in of a harbor or even the abandonment of a belief can result in the sudden or gradual decline of the structures that civilizations have built. A contemporary ruin can be similar to, or different from, a classical ruin. Ruins of Mississippi and Other Places is an attempt to compare and contrast the ruins I saw on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina with ruins I have seen elsewhere in the world.