James Howard Kunstler is a novelist, journalist and former editor of Rolling Stone magazine. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape is the first in a series of books Kunstler has written dealing broadly with the decay of the urban environment.
His ideas were further developed in two books that followed, Home from Nowhere (1996), and The Long Emergency (2005). The latter book concentrated more on a prophesised steep decline for the US economy, due to rapidly shrinking global oil supplies, a phenomenon known of as ‘peak oil’.
How the Car Took Over
In The Geography of Nowhere, Kunstler concentrates on the negative impacts America’s car obsession has had on its public spaces. An item that was supposed to bring luxury and ease to its citizens, the car soon turned into a necessity that took over everything. Public spaces shrunk and had to be redesigned to accommodate millions of cars. The result has been a proliferation of decidedly inhumane public space: angry motorists wanting to get from one place to another as quickly as possible.
Kunstler is an interesting mix of sophisticated aesthete, acerbic critic and concerned environmentalist. He writes in a polished, urbane prose that tosses out clever, witty lines to keep the reader amused. It’s also a relief to read someone who is refreshingly opinionated, saying things that are rarely said when it comes to the contemporary environment and its ugliness. Kunstler backs himself up with a wealth of knowledge (the book provides a detailed reading list at the back). Indeed, the brash and amusing style of the book works so successfully simply because – agree with him or not – Kunstler is genuinely obsessed with his subject. Kunster may at times seem over confident in his pronunciations of the terribleness of the urban scene, but never is he glib.
How the Economy Created the Modern Environment
The economy also gets a lot of space devoted to it in The Geography of Nowhere. Kunstler notes that the growth-at-all-costs model for economic growth has had a hugely detrimental effect on the urban environment. From General Motors buying up and destroying cable car tracks and replacing them with buses, to the huge parking lagoons in shopping centres, the dominance of oil and cheap transport has determined urban environments.
This is why, Kunstler believes, the economy will need to change if people’s environments are to change. Instead of having behemoth corporate companies fly into towns with their goods and services, offering crappy jobs in return while shipping back local money to company headquarters, towns and suburbs will have to create their own stable local economies. Local economies will keep money in the area, and it will also build respect for the local urban environment.
Is Kunstler Merely a Utopian?
Critics could argue that Kunstler’s dreamed of world with less cars, more parks, integrated local economies and a healthier, happier people is a simplistic utopian dream. Nevertheless, there are many compelling criticisms made in The Geography of Nowhere. Surely no one living today’s car dependent suburban life would wish to have more traffic and less public space for relaxation and the playing of children?
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, by James Howard Kunstler. Published by Touchstone, 1993. ISBN-10: 0-671-70774-4
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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