The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape | 
 enlarge | Author: James Howard Kunstler
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 8940
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0671888250
Dewey Decimal Number: 300
EAN: 9780671888251
ASIN: 0671888250
Publication Date: July 26, 1994
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Product Description
The Geography of Nowhere traces America's evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots. In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. "The future will require us to build better places," Kunstler says, "or the future will belong to other people in other societies."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 A total eye opener; ESSENTIAL reading for urban planners December 3, 2008
As a student and professional of urban planning for nearly 20 years, I really wish I'd read this book in the mid-90s. Nevertheless, I walked away from this read yesterday, when I finished it, with a much broader perspective on where we are as a society and why.
For anyone who has ever tried to figure out the source and reasoning for their dissatisfaction with post-WW2 city growth, urban sprawl, and our reliance on the auto - this book is the Rosetta Stone to all those questions.
Kunstler puts the whole picture together for you, and explains where we're at, and the political mechanisms that put us here. Most of the read involves historical perspectives, but if we want to understand our present state of matters, retrospect is necessary.
There's a few matters you want to keep in mind when diving into this book...
First, it's harbored in a time right before the internet took off...and that's a good thing, as book's release in the mid-90s couldn't have been timed any better. It allows for a clean perspective of societal development before email and web access, which would obviously have been a game-changer on the author's view.
Secondly, it focuses on historical perspectives to the effect that there's very little offered in terms of solutions...but solutions aren't the point here, even despite the fact that New Urbanism (part of the solution, it would turn out) hadn't taken full form at the time of this book's release; at least in the way that we understand it today. For solutions, you need to read the companion book "From Nowhere to Home."
Lastly, Kunstler takes no prisoners in terms of assigning blame to those responsible for the grievances spelled out in the book...and I was very pleased that nobody was spared, as it makes the read that much more real and honest. Politicians, developers, planners of the pre-New Urbanism era, Big SpOil, and captains of industry all get skewered, and rightly so...to know how to proceed with the future, it's essential to understand who goofed in the past, and what the motivations were.
My favorite parts of the book were the ends to many of the chapters, which were summed up with genius dialogue. Many of the chapters end in amusing and venomous rants, some of which left me pumping my fist in the air and engaging my treadmill to expire the energy.
As I indicated previously, this is essential to anyone interested in the arts of city planning...for those of you out there jobs related to the planning field, the content in here is a great way to have a more informed approach to land use recommendations, planning policy, and engage better in heated discussion during those painful public hearings...or just impress the director and commissioners over lunch.
In any event, this book will answer questions and paint a clearer picture for those who have pondered society's urban form and where it went wrong. Anyone will walk away with a much more informed, broader depth of knowledge. For the price, that breadth of knowledge can't be beat.
A must read for urban planners. November 23, 2008
This is the first in James Howard Kuntsler's magnificent series of discussions about the community-killing errors we have made in the past while expanding and modernizing our existing urban environments.
Huge parking lots now separate the merchant from what used to be the Main Street of town, and monolithic big box stores present dead, windowless, and undecorated walls on three sides of the building.
What was once an interesting downtown area where people lived, shopped and mingled is now just a series of dull, unimaginative warehouses which destroy the previously established identity of a town or neighborhood, and transform the area into just another example of Nowhere, USA, where no one wants to live.
Mr. Kuntsler believes that we need to bring our citizens back into a serviceable downtown that serves their need of a pleasant, walkable area where they can live, dine, work, and shop--without the need of freeways.
He makes this argument for a better future with wit and reason; he is as entertaining as he is enlightening.
Launches a thought provoking salvo against sprawl November 20, 2008
Kunstler is the Kerouac of the anti-sprawl set - the writer of this wonderful book that thoroughly indicts those non-places we all deal with every day. As every traveler can attest, sometimes you wake up in your Hampton Inn across from the Chili's, in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart/Target/Perkins, and wonder, "Just what city am I in today, anyway, and more importantly, do I care?"
This book is more about the unbearable sameness of everything and how it doesn't create places people want to live, but places they're forced to live. The book is light on data, heavy on rhetoric, but hammers its point home through anecdotes, allegory, and turns of phrase that make the read analyze what, exactly, they see in these suburban (and some urban) same places.
While he doesn't add to the field from a research perspective, he's the muse that should inspire others to add to the existing literature.
 Angry, left wing slant to this book..... June 21, 2008
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've only read a few chapters of this book but I can already get a sense of the author's left wing political leanings. He seems to think that cars are the root of all evil. (Just like author Jared Diamond seems to blame everything on deforestation--see his books).
Kunstler's book is also filled with bits of meaningless prose which seem to reflect some sort of personal ax to grind. Here's an example from page 219:
"Even after he became a showbiz mogul, Walt Disney's world view remained that of a provincial midwesterner, whether it was his idea of the jungle (ooga booga), or of space travel (gee whiz), or of U.S. history (I pledge allegiance...)."
I don't understand Kunstler's point here. There's a vaguely critical tone towards people from the midwest in this sentence but what is his point? What purpose does the gibberish "ooga booga" serve in this sentence? What does "gee whiz" mean? Is Kunstler trying to mock people who are impressed by the achievement of space travel as somehow being provincial? That's just silly. Being in awe of space travel is obviously not restricted to people born in midwest. What exactly is Kunstler's point? What is the purpose of putting "I pledge allegiance" in brackets in this sentence? Is this some sort of criticism of the pledge of allegiance as somehow being "provincial"?.
I find this sort of meaningless prose annoying. I'll probably skim read the rest of the book just for the interesting tidbits.
An Excellent Overview of America's Growth Culture April 1, 2008
JHK puts together an excellent overview of the forces and personalities that defined today's American lifestyle and culture. It condenses four centuries of history, architecture, and science to create a sort of family tree of who we are as a nation and draws the map of how we got here. Not everything is perfect -- IMO he disparages Walt Disney unfairly -- but overall it is a good read that puts many of today's events in perspective.
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