The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape

James Howard Kunstler's jeremiad against suburbification was originally written as an essay under the title "Why Is America So Fucking Ugly?" The book recounts the history and culture by which the US has made unpersons of me and my fellow ambulators, leading to what Kunstler repeatedly calls the "crisis of place in America" (e.g. 189). "No one who could avoid it would want to be on foot on a typical collector road. Any adult between eighteen and sixty-five walking along one would instantly fall under suspicion of being less than a good citizen" (117). How often I have resembled that remark.

In the early 1990s, when this book was first published, Kunstler was already able to point to two generations of Americans who had never lived in any show more town or neighborhood physically designed for humans rather than automobiles. Despite his diagnoses here, and the perpetuation and development of the ameliorative work that he itemizes in his final chapter, a third generation has been added since.

A silver lining of the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns was a widespread cessation of motor traffic, and it was a moment when many US Americans were forced to confront the realities of their local built environments. Some urban pedestrianizations undertaken at that time have persisted. But to the extent that 21st-century progress has been made on the problems that Kunstler's book discusses, the Trumpist reaction has worked to halt and where possible reverse that progress. "Drill, baby, drill," is necessarily paired with a resentment of pedestrians and cyclists. They hate us for our freedom, and the mind-manacled thralls of the Cybertruck, the minivan, and the SUV are determined to drive us all to hell with them.

At the 2026 moment of my reading, petroleum prices are spiking in response to the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran. Kunstler offers some explicit discussion of the "oil crises" of the 1970s, and he takes as axiomatic that the precarity of fuel costs associated with impending peak oil will eventually put paid to car culture, leaving us with the inhospitable landscape that has been built for these metal monstrosities. Indeed, he forecast a pivot in oil supply for right about ... now. show less

First of all, it's important to note that Kunstler's book is best characterized as a polemic and should be read as such. It's angry, sarcastic, and spiteful but in a way that manages to retain a sense of humor and a sense of the tragic.

The reason it's important to view the Geography of Nowhere as a polemic is this: many of Kunstler's points are not particularly well argued for. That's not to say there isn't interesting and insightful commentary within the book, but rather that most of the broader claims of the book presuppose a shared aesthetic and economic sensibility between author and reader. If you're not already inclined towards sheer disgust at the sight of a housing development, Kunstler is not going to convince you that you show more ought to be. If you are so adamant about property rights that you are willing to sacrifice every vestige of community in order to allow the building of anything anywhere, you'll be similarly unconvinced.

However, for those who are already a bit sickened and perplexed by the Sprawlscape affecting our nation Kunstler offers an explanation and a diagnosis. His first question is "How did we end up here?"

He begins with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in order to answer this question, and from there gives us a brief survey of the building and architectural trends that have developed since. What emerges is this: although the suburbs we are now familiar with first began to develop alongside railway and trolley lines, it was not until government, business, and the planning industry combined forces after WW2 that things really took a turn for the worst.

This is a familiar narrative and using it Kunstler goes on the describe the process by which we came to create a society and an economy scaled for cars rather than humans. I don't think there is anything particularity objectionable about the broad narrative, even if its become hackneyed.

What I found most interesting were some of his specific cases in which zoning laws literally forced asinine construction. This is something I was mildly aware of, but the examples Kunstler cites really helped to bring the point home. By creating nearly uniform sets of zoning regulations for communities big and small, urban and rural we've chosen convenience and perceived safety over any sort of contact with reality.

I do worry a bit about the some of Kunstler's broad conclusions. For example, it's just not obvious to me that living in one dimensional office park to mall to tract home communities is necessarily BADfor us. It's a lifestyle I find terribly unappealing, but I wonder whether or not it's really as psychologically damaging as Kunstler would have us believe. Are all the dramatics about "spiritual suffocation" and lives of "quiet desperation" any more true of today's gated communities than the similar but probably false claims made about the residents of Winesburg, Ohio? For my part, I'm loathe to paint my cultural and aesthetic adversaries as folks that subconsciously desire to trade in their lives for mine.

I also wonder how Kunstler might justify the claims he makes about disengagement from civic activities as a direct result of suburbanization. What he says fits all my preconceptions, but he doesn't bring any hard data to the table when he makes such claims.

Finally, all criticism aside, for a book written in the early 90s The Geography of Nowhere is remarkably prescient. Kunstler is flat out correct that we cannot keep building communities focused around cars, because it won't be long before we literally cannot power the cars in an effective or affordable manner. Tying up our property and our economy at large with a fleeting car culture is perhaps the biggest mistake in recent American history. In order to get ourselves out of this mess we're going to have to fundamentally revise our lifestyles and large parts of our economy. I can't help but think that the coming metamorphosis will be a painful process. show less

Part history, part analysis, and part plain old rant, The Geography of Nowhere discusses the evolution of the cities and houses in the U.S. in the city, the country, and the suburbs.

Kunstler starts with a historical overview of housing and community development in the U.S., starting with colonial towns and ending with the soulless suburban sprawl of today. Although much of the content was familiar, the historical overview had a number of surprises.

If you grew up in the U.S., when you think of an agricultural community you think of isolated farm houses surrounded by fields. Historically, agricultural communities have had a rather different setup. Homes were clustered together, and these town centers were surrounded by the farm lands. show more Your farmland was not necessarily adjacent to your property, but it was within a manageable distance. This layout provided safety and was more efficient for people without cars. The country sprawl that we think of as typical today is actually a result of the vast amounts of lands in the American west and the governments policies for settling them.

The history of the suburb is also surprising. Again in the U.S., you generally think of suburbs as the result of car induced sprawl. However, the first suburbs were built in the 1800s as communities along rail lines. They shared many features with modern suburbs (people lived there but did not work there, they were often planned communities of similar homes). However, they differed in one key respect. The original suburbs were built to human scale. Because they were rail suburbs, the residents still had to be able to walk within the community. Furthermore, the railroad station provided a natural center to the community, something which modern suburbs lack.

The next part of the book discusses the changes in house styles in the U.S. This part contains a fair bit of ranting about modern architecture. [b:Home A Short History of an Idea|134218|Home A Short History of an Idea|Witold Rybczynski|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347708868s/134218.jpg|129307] by Witold Rybczynski does a better job of presenting similar information.

Kunstler presents case studies of 6 cities, pointing out what is right about them and what is wrong, and closes with a discussion of what is being done to make better places and stronger communities. Overall, I enjoyed The Geography of Nowhere. Kunstler ranted enough to be amusing without being distracting. The historical perspective and the case studies were valuable resources. Even though this book was published in 1993, it is still relevant. In fact, it may be increasingly relevant as the crash of the housing bubble lends energy to community rebuilding efforts. show less

This very interesting book looks at city planning and architecture, and how they have both failed to produce cities that people actually want to live in, and that are sustainable over the long run. He hates suburbs and shopping malls and big box stores; most of all, he hates privately owned automobiles. He likes small towns. He likes mixed use areas. He likes public transit.

I agree with him on almost all these things. Kids in suburbs are kind of trapped with no place to go unless mom drives them. There is no corner store or movie theater a few blocks away they can walk to. If you need a carton of milk when you live in one of those developments, you have to get in the car and drive to the nearest shopping center, which sits in a sea of show more parking spots. Because stuff is so spread out, public transportation won’t pay for itself, and no real community is built between people.

Modern zoning doesn’t allow mixed use- there are no apartments over little stores so people can live close to a job. There are no small factories in between eating places and stores. When faced with undeveloped or farm land, planners think to preserve the rural feeling by making building plots of 5 or 10 acre minimum, but this doesn’t work. It’s really hard for a farmer to keep using that 5 or 10 acres when it’s fenced off from other plots, and is bisected by a driveway, and has a house in the middle with a lawn and garden. We face that where I live; owners want their 5 acre lots hayed but farmers find the odd shaped plots that are left after people build too difficult to maneuver cutting and baling equipment in. It’s green space, but it’s not feeding anyone anymore. And it’s not green space that the public can use, either.

Written more than 20 years ago, Kunstler’s observations are still valid. Nothing has changed other than that we’re even closer to running out of fossil fuels and urban slums are getting bigger. Municipal buildings and shopping areas are still ugly. More suburban developments have been built. More big box stores have run small business out. The problem with the book are two things: one, the author presents few solutions although he does show a few; and, two, he’s a bloody snob. He puts down the majority of the population as not having any taste or class; he makes statements about the poor that make me, a poor person all my life, wish I could have a few harsh words with him. But despite these things, I feel his book should be required reading for anyone going into architecture, city planning, or being a small town/county politician. What he points out should be obvious, but people just don’t see it because they are so used to it. There *are* options to the way we live today. show less

America's evolution—or devolution—from distinct communities to a place where everywhere is similar to nowhere in particular. An original examination of place sociology during the latter half of the 20th century.

James Howard Kunstler brings up very thoughtful points in this book. It made me observe my world a little differently, from the buildings I see every day to the infrastructure on which I rely, to my complete inability (and everyone else's as well) to do without an automobile in this crazy, silly little world we call ours. Kunstler addresses the problem of the loss of community as a symptom of urban sprawl, and he's right.

Of course, there are many people to blame for this mess we've created, most of them long dead, and therefore excused from punishment. On the other hand, the mess they've helped create just tumbles along in the name of profit and growth.

I was assigned chapters from this book for a college course on Cities and Suburbs. show more I've always meant to read it in its entirety and I'm glad I did. I remember reading an article of Kunstler's (an excerpt from a book, actually) from The Long Emergency, which is a bit scary and alarmist, but also very good.

If only we could reverse time's hand by about 200 years, perhaps we'd have an entirely different place to observe. Then again, maybe not. The last chapter, "Better Places," was especially moving for me. He described the plight of farmers in Vermont in the 1980s and '90s. It's almost exactly what happened to my grandparents, who were dairy farmers their whole lives. Lacking understanding about what a "land trust" means, they sold to a developer and were completely swindled. Though there are undoubtedly some who want to continue farming, land prices and property taxes make it nearly impossible to continue a family tradition. It is really too sad.

"Growth for growth's sake is the ideology of a cancer cell." - Edward Abbey show less

A surprisingly dense book that reviews the history of American architecture and town planning in an attempt to explain how our cities were transformed from people-centric to car-centric places. Kuntsler is a very smooth and articulate writer with a witty style I like. He shows amazing predictive ability in this book, written in 1993. He calls out the importance of global warming, the death of Detroit and GM, and the invasion of countries to secure our supply of petroleum. I learned a lot of new and interesting facts in this bookr. For example, Henry Ford built a small village near Detroit and populated it with the old homes of famous inventors like the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison in an attempt to re-create the small town show more experience that his automobiles were in the process of destroying. Walt Disney did the same with Disneyland. I also learned about the Bauhaus movement, which was an attempt to simplify architecture, but instead served to strip the life and style out of American buildings. There is lots to chew on in this book, and I will certainly be reminded of Kuntsler's perspective every time I see a parking lot. show less