Rating: 
Summary: Mind Reader
Review: "What's wrong with me? My home is neat and tidy (and big) and the neighborhood is tranquil, so why am I so BORED? How come my kids seem so aloof (comatose)? I'd go out, but even if there were no rush hour traffic I probably won't find a good parking spot." How many Americans have thought this? Jim Kunstler reads our minds and then deftly and humorously spells out why a "robust" economy hasn't done a thing to strengthen our lives and families. Folks, we don't know one another anymore because we're too doped up on all the "necessities" of life (Car, big-screen, cell-phone). Is traditional town planning the elixir we need to save us? Probably not. However, it becomes painfully clear after reading this indispensible book that suburban sprawl has done a lot more to us than contribute countless sterile neighborhoods to the landscape. This book, in many ways, has changed my life. GET IT...READ IT.
Rating:
Summary: Mind Reader
Review: "What's wrong with me? My home is neat and tidy (and big) and the neighborhood is tranquil, so why am I so BORED? How come my kids seem so aloof (comatose)? I'd go out, but even if there were no rush hour traffic I probably won't find a good parking spot." How many Americans have thought this? Jim Kunstler reads our minds and then deftly and humorously spells out why a "robust" economy hasn't done a thing to strengthen our lives and families. Folks, we don't know one another anymore because we're too doped up on all the "necessities" of life (Car, big-screen, cell-phone). Is traditional town planning the elixir we need to save us? Probably not. However, it becomes painfully clear after reading this indispensible book that suburban sprawl has done a lot more to us than contribute countless sterile neighborhoods to the landscape. This book, in many ways, has changed my life. GET IT...READ IT.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tragic Capitulation Away From Prior Objectivity.
Review:
Kunstler wrote an excellent description of American culture in his previous book, "The Geography of Nowhere." This book correctly identified the problems with suburbia as related to the present mindset and inconsistencies of middle class life.
"Home from Nowhere" is a set of solutions that come directly from the author being co-opted by the "New Urbanist" movement. Kunstler is not however, an urban planner, just an astute observer. Consequently, he is not really qualified to suggest exclusive solutions. In this book, he fails because he trades objectivity and observation for specific solutions that are surficial and contain the dogma driven agenda of others. The book is reduced to merely being another mouthpiece for the New Urbanists.
Suffice it to say, anyone who can correctly identify a set of problems, does not necessarily have the right solutions for them. This has been an endemic problem with the New Urbanists. Judging from his past work, I would have expected Kunstler to have had an acute appreciation for this. Sadly, I was wrong. This book is a dud.
Rating:
Summary: Remaking Our Towns and Cities
Review: As a law student who recently decided to go for a masters in urban planning, I cannot overemphasize how influential Kunstler's writing was on my decision. Before I knew much about the field of planning, I knew that I was disgusted by the banal strip mall developments and cookie cutter homes marring the American landscape. Once I read Kunstler's first book, the Geography of Nowhere, the impact of development was clear in my mind. I began digging into this new subject. Geography of Nowhere tells how we got to this point (federal highway grants, VA Loans, the historical perspective on car-centered development), while his latest book tells us where we can begin to make a change in the urban environment, and Kunstler offers opinions and well-thouht diatribes aimed at improving the state of America's cities. His writing is down-to-earth and personal, which draws tha reader into considering how his or her own perspective is shaped by the urban environment. One of the magazine reviewers wrote that his writing is disjointed, which is somewhat true - the book reads as a series of essays - but it is no less readable and engaging. I think of Kunstler's books as an important gateway for citizen activism - once you read Kunstler, you'll likely be interested in reading more books about town planning and the New Urbanism, and you will have a newfound adamance about a previously obscure topic.
Rating:
Summary: now I know what went wrong
Review: Before I read this book, I had always sensed that there was something awful about suburban Atlanta, but I had no idea how it got that way. After reading Kunstler's book, I understood the culprit: dictatorial zoning laws that actually forced suburbs to be built the way they are, by requiring huge parking lots and rigid separation of commercial and residential uses.
Rating:
Summary: for many this is required reading.
Review: Having spent many years exploring the dynamics of the country and the city, as well as a few years in the "burbs", my feelings could not be better expressed than by James Kunstler's new book. My feelings of what, and who should care? This is a book for all Americans....certainly everyone seeking an educated, enlightened way of life. I am thrilled to be a part of an urban design concept in Seattle, Wa. called "Growing Vine Street", (definitely a "plug"), and this book will make gift-giving for my fellow board members....well, quite simple. Anyone concerned with living, art and our future should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Ideas: B+. Writing: C-.
Review: I bought the book after reading the back cover copy, thinking it would be interesting because cities have always fascinated me. Well, it is hard to describe exactly how I felt reading the book. It was very incisive and eye-opening in explaining why suburban life creates the disconnectedness, the apathy, and the isolation so many people feel--and how the cities in their present state induce the rage and crime typical of those environments. In that respect it was interesting, but I didn't make it to the end of the book because:
(a)All of this was so depressing I wanted to curl up in a little ball and die; and
(b)Kunstler's writing is way off the charts--hyperbolic, strident, and slightly hysterical. I found this very off-putting. He could've said the same things in a normal, calm, in-control way and probably gained a wider audience and opened the subject up for more objective consideration. When people get freaked out, there's no room for actual discourse, so I think Kunstler did himself and his subject a disservice by writing like such a chihuahua.
To sum up, I would like to see other books about this subject written by cooler heads.
Rating: 
Summary: A facsinating book written by a pompous...
Review: I found this book intriguing, and I wholeheartedly agree with many of Mr. Kunstler's observations and suggestions. I freely admit that he has been instrumental in making me a believer in "New Urbanism". It helps that I live close to the Kentlands in Maryland (a development discussed in the book), and have many friends who live there -- I can see that the concept can work. The only reason I cannot give the book 5 stars is because of Mr. Kunstler himself. While agreeing with his message, I was completely put off by his weening self-absorption and arrogance. The chapter on "The Farm" was nothing more than the author assuming we would be interested in his opinion on organic crop-raising. We weren't. And this chapter was strangely unconnected to the theme of the remainder of the book -- totally out of place. So, keep writing Mr. Kunstler -- you are sending an important message that needs to be heard. But keep your ego and self-interest to yourself. It would be very much too bad if this valuable message does not get received because readers are too put off by the messenger.
Rating:
Summary: Resonates with me
Review: I read Kunstler's work on New Urbanism because it resonates with me. I used to drive an hour each way through work through mind-rending traffic, and I lived in subdivision where I could only leave by car, although most destinations were within 1 mile. I know the suburban sprawl of which Kunstler speaks, and it is refreshing to read a point of view that gels with my own experience. I see some issues in what he writes about, particularly in that many solutions are feasible only for the well off, but much of it strikes me as true. It may be polemic - although Home from Nowhere is packed with facts compared to Geography of Nowhere - but this polemic speaks to me at times. Home from Nowhere has several chapters with tangible plans for civic improvement, including both urban renewal and 'greenfield' development. Concrete examples are given to demonstrate the principles of New Urbanism, as well as examples where New Urbanism failed to make an impact. Sections of the book seem like a rebuttal to responses to Geography of Nowhere. He mentions that he has traveled more and acquired an education in architectural principles, and his facts and research do make the book more worthwhile. If you have already read Geography of Nowhere, this book can fill in some of the gaps between the rhetoric. The last several chapters began to drag. First, the reader spends some time in Florida with a like-minded developer. Then there is the scathing chapter on local politics in upstate New York. Finally, an interesting chapter on organic farming seems tacked on without connection to the rest of the text. Most amusing of all was the autobiographical segment, where we learn the author was teased in his inner-city high school. One might draw the conclusion that the author's early experiences formed many of his opinions. While I am sure that was the intent of this chapter, I doubt he intended some of the conclusions I drew from his early life. I might mention some of the stereotyping that may offend readers of this book, and in fact, may lead me to write a letter to Mr. Kunstler. I will mention a few incidents. In one chapter on Memphis, Kunstler painstakingly reproduces the southerner's dialect, although he does this for no one else. In another chapter, he discusses muggings in NYC, and describes a typical mugger wearing hip-hop fashions. He apologizes in advance and then continues to discuss the problems of the inner-city poor. He mentions WASPs and all the evils they proliferate in passing. Finally, I was most shocked by his stereotyping of women. He writes: "An unmarried schoolteacher could not afford to live near the schoolchildren she taught, not to mention the cleaning lady." Apparently the author associates teaching and cleaning with women - their traditional roles. He should take more care in his use of gender pronouns. If you took the good parts of Geography of Nowhere and the good parts of this book (particularly the first few chapters, which were very fact-filled), you would have an excellent book on the principles of New Urbanism. The writing style can be very appealing. However, this book is not perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile endeavor, but questionable perspectives
Review: I really don't want to badmouth Mr. Kunstler, for he has done quite a bit of good for our society. I was blown away by Geography of Nowhere, as I read it in an afternoon sitting in a city park, and it has forever defined my life's work since. Nevertheless, from the first chapter of this book, Kunstler reveals that after stepping lightly with his first attempt at being a mainstream voice for new urbanism, his ego boost has paralelled book sales and he lets us know what he really thinks with Home from Nowhere. Technical issues aside such as property taxes and zoning laws, he comes across as a bitter old man who seems to just miss the 'good ol' days'. He suggests that there was some mythical time last century when cities were crafted beautifully with tree lined lanes and horse drawn carriages, and everyone wore suits everywhere they went. He ignores the brutal overcrowding of 19th century London, the rampant diseases associated with horse crap everywhere, and extreme poverty that lead to the middle class's quest for the suburbs in the first place. I can't remember if this was in the book or not, but at a recent presentation he suggested that the Columbine shootings would not have happened had Columbine been a well-planned urban setting rather than a sprawling suburb. He seems to ignore the fact that our most crime and drug ridden neighborhoods (inner cities) fit the perfect geographic and architectural description of his new movement. I guess I'm just trying to say that I agree with his assessments, but he comes at this book and the problems he addresses from an upper middle class perspective, ignoring all other sects of society (that's not to say new urbanism as a movement ignores these problems). Maybe that's his point - you can't solve all the world's problems. If he's set on solving the problems of those who have money and leaving the rest, then so be it. It's a fine book.
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