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The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
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Review
Robert Taylor Boston Globe A wonderfully entertaining useful and provocative account of the American environment by the auto, suburban developers, purblind zoning and corporate pirates.Bill McKibben author of The End of Nature A Funny, Angry, Colossally Important Tour of Our Built Landscape, Our Human Ecology.The New Yorker A serious attempt to point out ways future builders can avoid the errors that have marred the American landscape.James G. Garrison The Christian Science Monitor Contributes to a discussion our society must hold if we are to shape our world as it continues to change at a dizzying pace.Michiko Kakutani The New York Times Provocative and entertaining.
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About the Author
James Howard Kunstler is the author of eight novels. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and an editor for Rolling Stone, and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Sunday Magazine. He lives in upstate New York.
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Product details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Free Press (July 26, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780671888251
ISBN-13: 978-0671888251
ASIN: 0671888250
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
163 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#41,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Geography of Nowhere is a wonderful, life-changing book. I wish I could make every developer, every SUV owner and every town council read this book. Its main topic is the physical environments that Americans live in, in contrast to our historical environments and to overseas. Kunstler shows how the advent of the automobile has changed the face of cities, small-towns and birthed the suburb. The choice to live without an automobile is now a very difficult one for most people, and also comes with certain social assumptions. Yet, after reading Geography of Nowhere, I am seeking ever more ways to take public transportation and reduce my reliance on a vehicle that both pollutes the natural environment and despoils the man-made environment.Some chapters in the book focus on cities gone wrong, such as Detroit. Others discuss the ideal community, involving mixed-use neighborhoods (both purpose - commercial, residential, industrial - and class - working, professional, wealthy). Kunstler makes the case that prior to the development of suburbia and the reign of automobiles as our primary form of transportation, we had a kinder, cleaner, and happier world. Disney World's Main Street was used as an example of how car-free neighborhoods have become an American dream, and at the same time, few people understand why cars have had such a negative effect.Geography of Nowhere has confirmed my choice to live in a city with public transportation, in a mixed-use neighborhood, within walking distance of most of my needs. It may be more expensive and it may be unconventional, but I now have the evidence to back up my convictions.
My first intro to Kunstler was watching his equally informative speech on Americas urban design nightmares on You.Tube TED talks. He made a strong case as to why the suburbs are so pat ethic and American architecture can be cruel to the people it's supposed to serve.This book was a marvel to read also because it was written over twenty years ago and is still dead on in its analysis. Post 2008 recession who could argue credibly otherwise? My hope is that millennials will wake up and break the cycle of suburban home buying.My awakening began in the early 2000 when I got a job working housing construction then later landscaping and later again installing storm doors and windows. Entire suburban neighbourhoods throughout the Midwest are essentially empty and lack any character or soul. There is no community, and no one is around except on weekends. It,s a social and economic disaster. Everyone just works or stays inside getting fatter, more diabetic, and watching their TVs endlessly.It,s time for an overhaul. Washington, D.C., NY, and Portland hopefully are leading the way. The future of urban design will about creating the framework for organically grown towns, cities, and communities. The suburbs are death and dying.
This book speaks to ideas I have had for 50 years. I started my career as a Mechanical Engineer at General Motors in Detroit in 1965. I was appalled at how the car screwed up the city, and made it so difficult and time consuming to get around by spreading out everything (suburban sprawl). We moved away from the walkable cities we once had and got rid of the streetcars and rarely attempted to provide for light rail or intercity train or rapid transit. We have so many cars that getting around in our cities is a frequent nightmare. We have also usually not attempted to plan anything like public places or transit. How can we ever rectify the situation if we refuse to plan? I had hoped that someday we would realize that our over reliance on the car does not work in cities but it hasn't happened yet. I guess we need to put high taxes on fuel and use the money to move to adding transit in our cities. Don't hold your breath in waiting for this! I agree with the statement that we spend so much time arguing about flag burning, abortion, debt and other things and never stop to realize that we have built a landscape that looks awful, is very expensive, and really doesn't function well. We haven't used our brains.
Kunstler's scathing, often outright angry commentary is both entertaining and enlightening. The second half becomes harder to get through as the author starts relating pictures we all associate with Americana- the boarded up downtown building, the corner chain convenience store, parking lots everywhere, the same fast food restaurants along every highway, the local business that had to shut its doors, the decrepit multi-story complex, the abandoned factory... The information and critique don't seem especially preachy being backed by amusing historical anecdotes and interesting factoids. Some might construe the author's slant as anti-consumerist or anti-capitalist, but what's here is far more more depressing and complicated than any politically charged diatribe.
I'm really glad I read this book!The part that I loved, first of all, is that there is a new forward in here from 2013-2014. This book was written over 20 years ago, and though a lot of stuff has changed since then, the author took the effort to write about how this book compares to now. A lot of the main concepts in here are definitely still relevant and still seen today in suburbs and urban areas, so it was an interesting read.The only problem I had, which is the same problem that I have with all nonfiction books (about all sorts of subjects) is the dreaded "second chapter." This is the part of the book where the author describes the history of *insert subject of book* in order for the reader to understand the background. While immensely helpful and even slightly interesting at times, this part of the book seemed to ramble on a bit about things that I really am not going to remember later. That is the only reason I took off a star. I would really give it about 4 1/2 stars.Other than that, this book was so interesting! The author writes in a style that is informative yet not pretentious. He is definitely knowledgable regarding the field.
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