Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the 21st Century

Kunstler is angry about the terrible state of the American built environment, and expounds his anger with conviction. Reading this book as a British person makes you profoundly grateful that the UK has not succumbed to the same degree of car-dependent suburban sprawl as the US. This is not to say that the British built environment is uniformly or even mostly excellent. What struck me, though, is that the UK still uses our urban centres, albeit not always well, and does not require commercial buildings to be single storey. Indeed, does any development build single storey structures in the UK? It seems like such a waste of space. I suspect that the UK has resisted suburban sprawl in part thanks to greater population density historically, show more and in part due to a strain of traditionalism that manifests in carefully protected green belts. On the other hand, Kunstler's comments about the tedious homogeneity of design in new developments, especially housing, definitely ring a bell on this side of the Atlantic.

'Home from Nowhere' treads an interesting line between social science and reportage. It's an engaging read and, although written 16 years ago, very much still relevant. In my mind, it fits nicely with the non-fiction books that preceded 'The Wire' ('The Corner' and 'Homicide'), which expound the inner urban problems of the US much more effectively. Kunstler wobbles somewhat when discussing them, but vividly and trenchantly deconstructs the suburbs. show less

I learned that cars are really bad for America in some subtle ways that you might not appreciate, even if you're disposed to be anti-car, just because the car culture is so ubiquitous. This is less well-known than the "Geography of Nowhere" but it's better because Kunstler goes into how a better system would work.

A continuation of The Geography of Nowhere, this book focuses on issues in urban architecture and ideas for planning comfortable living environments. Check out the Kunstler's website.