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Summary: revolutionary
Review: 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.
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Summary: The Simon Cowell of the suburban landscape!
Review: I grew up on Long Island in a cookie-cutter, cape cod house on a cul-de-sac. It was the very model of Levittown, the first notable post WWll plan that gave shape to what we now call the suburbs. For a child of the 60's, the surroundings were quaint enough but I was drawn to the older town nearby with uniformed, tree-lined blocks and beautiful homes each different from one another and with much more character. It also had in retrospect that special something that my neighborhood curiously lacked- a downtown.
As the 70's and 80's passed I knew something was wrong with this man-made canvas. Cape cods (which had their charms) gave way to split level houses where the garages became center stage (as well as all the junk for every neighbor to see), while strip malls, shopping malls, and non-descript office buildings sprouted up on a seemingly vanishing terrain of greenery with all the architectual style of a soviet ruled country. It seemed as if my once idyllic memories had been taken over my mind-numb robots building things for other mind-numb robots. How did this happen and why?
James Howard Kunstler's THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE answered these questions and more. It chronicles the rise and fall of the post World War ll american landscape with insight nicked with shazor sharp cuts and "laugh-out-loud" funny barbs. While there have been famous criticism of the urban planning in relation to european models, Kunstler's style is laced with brilliant pop cultural references that wonderfully illustrate what any humble citizen has sensed for decades (in fact, the author had me hooked from the beginning recalling a scene from the movie WHO FRAMMED ROGER RABBIT). For me, it was personally liberating to know that I was not alone in lamenting the homogenized blandness of my surroundings and Kunstler's book proves to be a reliable friend and resourse against what has now been popularized as "suburban sprawl."
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Summary: A sarcastic look at what is wrong with suburbia
Review: I really enjoyed this book as a biting, sarcastic look at what is wrong with suburbia today, how it got there and is there an alternative? As a member of the order homo suburbius I laughingly referred to myself as being "so suburban (tract house, minivan, etc, etc) as to almost be a parody of the stereotype". The book made me re-evaluate the things I overlook and take for granted in the suburbs. The next step is: Now that I know what is wrong, how can I change it?
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Summary: A great H-bomb to drop on postwar architectural plasticity
Review: If anyone has the capacity to let it sink into the average American suburbanite's head (at least those born in the postwar era) that that gleaming new boxy/plate-glass convenience store or massive-warehouse-style mega-mart (as well as all that tract housing) is *not* incredibly beautiful to either our eyes or our psyche, Kunstler has the gift of the pen to do it. Kunstler is unquestionably correct in pinpointing the automobile as the primary target of what has been wrought upon our new and ugly built environment (although other writers have also pointed this out as well). He pinpoints villains ranging from corporations to politicians in allowing this to happen; he's basically on target here as well. However, while Kunstler does hint at the following, it would do well to remind the reader in unmistakeable terms that it was ultimately the *American people* that allowed this to happen. When faced with a choice between aesthetics and convenience, we postwar Americans gave a huge bear-hug to convenience -- and in effect said, "Let's bring on the six-lane speedways slicing through the middle of town -- and if you make that fast-food joint gaudy enough, we'll be able to spot it as we drive towards it so we can get to it on the next exit ramp." The author also points out the Disneyesque phony-ness of much of today's "trendy" architecture (which seems to be a confused antidote to that six-lane monster and panoply of crud that surrounds it). Kunstler, like a number of others, pinpoints New Urbanism-type solutions as a very plausible antidote to all this ugliness and phony-ness. However, while a noble attempt to overcome the sins of the recent past, New Urbanism does have its critics (I confess to be one of them); it can perpetuate some of that theme-park fakeness that Kunstler deplores. Just how do you design an attractive, infectious community (or part of a community) that realizes that our appetite for cars, Whoppers, Super Wal-Marts, etc. is not going to go away anytime soon, and also is designed with a sense of architectural and functional *validity* to it? It seems that literature that addresses this entire question is hardly to be found. If Kunstler can expertly answer this in a future book, he'll earn a secure place in architectural and planning history.
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Summary: Bracing Account Of Our Suburban Nightmare.
Review: If you are one of the millions of Americans who live in the suburbs, you MUST read this book. Kunstler, while elitist in his opinions, nonetheless brings forth a wealth of ideas and facts on the condition of our sub-urban environment. (And, in his opinion, the "sub" in "suburban" connotates a lower level of living.) From an educational point of view, "The Geography of Nowhere" is a fascinating read: a trip through America's building patterns, as well as a concise analysis of the laws and policies that encourage and continue sprawl-building. From a political point of view, this is clearly one of the Bibles of "The New Urbanists," a group of people dedicated to stopping the ugliness of sprawl in its tracks. Whether you are on the side of the New Urbanites, or on the side of the suburbanites, it certainly helps to know the score, and "The Geography of Nowhere" is the "scorecard." Finally, from a personal point of view, it has resonance. It makes sense to build communities with beauty. It IS "economic racism" to only allow one type of home to be built in a gated community. It is wrong to continue to maul our land, so that everyone can get a little, ugly, look alike house in the sprawl. And it is anti-American, to propogate one one way to first-class citizenry: the car. Where is the choice? This is not a book for everyone. (My father hates it: no doubt because the boomer generation has a difficult time admitting that much of what they built is flimsy [stuff]. It's hard to admit that 50 years of development are wasted energy.) This is a book for people who care, and actively want to be a part of what will no doubt be one of the hot-button issues of the new century.
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Summary: It all comes into focus!
Review: If you grew up in a suburban tract house, you may have hated it. I know *I* did. I wasn't sure why, I just knew that something was *wrong*, something was *missing*. This was truly one of the most important books I have read (and I read *a lot*) because it provided immediate insight into what really *is* all wrong with those tract houses and the "neighborhoods" where they stand. Granted, some may criticize Kunstler because he is not an architect or city planner. On the other hand, his outsider status gives him the insight to proclaim "The Emperor has no clothes!"
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Summary: Just another book promoting the over-rated "New Urbanism"
Review: If you want to read stories about the author's boyhood, or read lies about Modern Architecture, this is for you. The writer has no experience in the field, and just makes a lot of uninformed guesses in this highly opinionated book. Inward looking, backward looking, but well written. Almost everything this author says is a distortion of the truth. Almost none of the statements that he makes are actually based on fact, but rather on selected bits and pieces of history.
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Summary: Quite frank and quite real
Review: In the book called The Geography of Nowhere, James Kunstler, the author, fiercely creates the point to the reader that America has turned into a wasted landscape. Kunstler's strongest point comes from his critique on the suburbs. Some chapters like in "A Place Called Home," chapter nine, he expresses his harsh attitude to the suburbs by calling it a disaster in ways. Coining phrases like "symptoms of this disease," Kunstler clearly states his antipathy towards the structure of the suburbs. Another topic that Kunstler focuses on in this book is the automobile. He wastes no time at listing the reasons why America would need a new transportation source for the future. Besides saying that the automobile created an unhealthy addiction to oil, a source that is non-renewable, Kunstler also talks about how poorly it has shaped our country. Congested highways, hot concentrations of pollution, unsafe environments for our growing children are some of the reasons in chapter six called "Joy Ride." Throughout the book, an underlying theme entwined with Kunstler's main ideas is the thought of bringing back the meaning life. As vague as that may seem, Kunstler means to create places that are worth caring for and can be truly appreciated. In chapters like "How to Mess Up a Town" and "The Loss of Community," Kunstler asserts how degraded and dull life has become. Fields to frolic about turned into silent parking lots and every single house in a neighborhood complex exactly alike inside out. In the last chapter, "Better Places," Kunstler talks about how some people are trying to revive the world of architecture and remaking land into towns that are pedestrian-friendly and are also worth caring for. All in all, Kunstler's book, The Geography of Nowhere, contains many ideas of the horrible state of American life and what is being done about it.
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Summary: "Come on Toto let's go home to Kansas"
Review: James Howard Kunstler would perfectly understand Dorothy's wish to return to simpler days and a happier life. He argues here that pre-WWII small-town America with it's sense of community represents all that was good about urban living. In contrast to that what we now have is THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE which is large central-city and suburban conglomerations incessantly spreading outwards, all interconnected by a network of freeways. Or as Kunstler's says "the whole destructive, wasteful, toxic, agoraphobia-inducing spectacle". This brings up my problem with the book - it's overly angry tone and the hyperbole that is used throughout. The book starts off well enough with a brief description of early colonial settlement patterns and the planning and design elements that governed our first towns and cities. There was a connection with community and an appreciation for space. Also a recognition that there can even be romantic and spiritual elements in how and where we lived. Kunstler then goes on to briefly mention architectural schools of thought and how changes in thinking have been reflected in our urban landscape. This is a pastel-shaded description of the first few chapters but if it's purple-prose you wish there is more than enough of that here. Also some of Kunstler descriptions of the more blighted aspects of our landscape are scarlet with anger. After describing Modernism and Postmodern approaches in architecture (and overly simplifying the differences between them) Kunstler is flowery yet dismissive: "Worshipping the machine and industrial methods as ends in themselves, they became the servants of an economy that plundered the future in order to power the engines of production and consumption for the present." As for the architects, far from being motivated by belief in their work or some element of professionalism, Kunstler says they are only interested because it was "the huge, out-of-scale, inhuman, corporate glass boxes that put paychecks on their desks every Friday." There is too much of this anger here and contrary to his publishers who describe it as "elegant and often hilarious" it's actually tedious and sometimes misplaced. In describing the silliness of Tomorrowland's vision of the future, Kunstler comes up with an inappropriate metaphor using dead and thus defenseless Walt Disney himself: "Walt's spiritual life must have been a torment." And after reading the following paragraph I completely lost track of what this book was about. It's about urban blight, right? "Families crack under the pressure. Fathers unable to cope take off for good. Mothers slip into public assistance, depression, obesity, alcoholism. Yet they keep having babies. There are parasitical boyfriends and a heightened incidence of child abuse..." There are some good points and the first part of the book before Kunstler got really upset is not bad. His enthusiasm for the subject and his passion in wanting a better urban America is obvious. If he were to put forward his recommendations for change in a less strident tone then maybe more would be done. Overall though there is too much histrionics and we shouldn't blame Dorothy if she said "Come on Toto let's go home, but leave the book behind".
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Summary: Kunstler's language should be used by the planners.
Review: James Kunstler has the advantage of the skillful writer of novels, which enables the more brilliant and satirical passages found in his description of our automobile wasteland. There are no serious attempts to construct answers. The rhetorical approach - "I know what a viable community looks like when I see it"- mimics the day to day planning literature produced by many less talented communicators. Kuntsler's book is no less necessary, of course, but one wishes for the same dramatic effect when the planning or "zoning" process begins in the city or town hall. When will the professionals learn to sell their worthy product without indulging in the language of dictatorship and the mechanics of taking? Kunstler does make one important point. The best of the small town or city neighborhoods are and were not planned. He demonstrates that we could expect viable communities if the automobile were eliminated from the scene. Attempts to regulate the automobile should in the long run survive serious legal challenge, perhaps more successfully than the notion that we can corporately deprive people of their land. Kunstler is not an urban planner, of course, but those who are might learn to sell their ideas by avoiding legalism and coercion and talking the language of the poet or novelist. Attractive neighborhood streets with real people on them may be the result. Tom Johnson
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