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

by James Howard Kunstler (Author) "HISTORY doesn't believe anybody's advertising..." (more)
Key Phrases: auto suburb, fry pits, traditional town planning, New York, World War Two, South Florida (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Through magazine articles and through his previous book, The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler has become one of the foremost decriers of the blighted urban landscape of the United States. Now, in this new sequel to the earlier book, Kunstler moves from description to prescription. The villains, Kunstler says, are zoning laws, real estate taxes, modernist architecture, and, particularly, the automobile. The solutions include multi-use zoning districts, car-free urban cores, revised tax laws, Beaux-Arts design principles, and, in particular, the neo-traditionalist school of architecture and city planning known as "new urbanism." It's possible to disagree with some of Kunstler's conclusions--the hope that large numbers of commuters will give up their single-passenger vehicles for public transit downtown has been discredited in city after city--without abandoning his larger goal: a return to a saner urban geography and, with it, to a saner way of life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
In a slashing, fervent, practical, brilliant critique of the philosophy?or lack thereof?underpinning today's dismal American cities and isolating suburbs, Kunstler argues that our streets, malls, parks, civic buildings and houses frustrate innate psychological needs, violate human scale and thwart our desire to participate in the larger world. An architectural design critic (The Geography of Nowhere) and a novelist, he champions "new urbanism," an architectural reform movement dedicated to producing cohesive, mixed-use neighborhoods for people of widely different incomes, neighborhoods resembling U.S. towns prior to WWII. Using photos and line drawings throughout, he highlights numerous new urbanism-inspired projects around the country, from Seaside, a resort town on the Florida panhandle, to redevelopment schemes in Providence, Memphis, Columbus and Corning, N.Y. He also lashes what he considers the major obstacles to new urbanism-banks that make loans only to projects creating more suburban sprawl; stifling zoning laws; and a property-tax system that punishes builders of quality and "rewards those who let existing buildings go to hell." First serial to the Atlantic.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone Press; 1ST edition (March 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684837374
• ISBN-13: 978-0684837376
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,225 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remodeling Hell, October 3, 2002

By	J.W.K (Nagano, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

The author of this book is a novelist by trade, with eight completed works already under his belt. However, having had no formal architectural training, his understanding of the subject in general, and what we have done to the physical fabric of our country in specific, is profound, enlightening and deeply important. For despite what we might imagine, "buildings foster certain kinds of behavior in humans." And our rush to pave over the nation with strip malls, urban sprawl, industrial parks, and seven-lane freeways ("anti-places") all tend to suppress and distort our better natures. Reading this book is both humorous and disheartening at the one and same time. It is humorous and easy to read, because the author's writing style is mature, articulate, and witty - clearly one of the quirks of his being a novelist. Disheartening, because it plainly documents how American cities have devolved into bleak, relentless, noisy, squalid, smoky, smelly, explosively expanding, socially unstable, dehumanizing sinkholes of industrial foulness congested with ragtag hordes of racing automobiles. In response to the tragedy of our cities, we seek escape. After the war, most Americans jumped into the wagon and fled for the suburbs. However, even there we find no guarantee of spiritual or physical ease. Cut off from grocery stores, city-centers, cafes, and work, we end up spending half our life (not to mention half our income) "sitting inside a tin can on the freeway." We have become "a drive-in civilization," scuttling between non-descript office malls, "schools that look fertilizer factories," warehouse-like grocery stores, paved-over mega malls, and the congested cities we left behind in the first place - all because none of these places are within walking or biking distance after having fled to the suburbs. In fact, life in the suburbs is so unsatisfactory that we seek alternate escape routes, having no other place to flee. The majority of our free time is spent glued in front of the TV screen or at the theatre, where we catch glimpses of a better world. When we are not in either of those places, we "escape to nature" via a weekend camping trip (because nature knows how to design esthetically-pleasing places) or head to Disneyland. Ah, Disneyland.... "The public realm in America became so atrocious in the postwar decades that the Disney Corporation was able to create an artificial substitute for it and successfully sell it as a commodity." Americans love Disney world, as the author points out, because it is only social terrain left that has not been colonized by the car. Although we may not realize it on a conscious level, "The design quality of Disney World ... is about 1.5 notches better than the average American suburban shopping mall or housing subdivision - so Americans love it." Yet this fantasy land is "ultimately less satisfying than reality, and only deepens our hunger for the authentic."In essence, the book is one long screed against shoddy civic design, car-centered development, single-use zoning laws (a subject that enrages the author to the point of profanity), and loss of excellence and beauty in architectural design. In place of these, the author wishes to reinvigorate community connectivity, enliven the public sphere, enthrone commonsense zoning laws, and start designing beautiful, lasting structures - just like we used to. As the author reminds us, "In such a setting, we feel more completely human. This is not trival." The alternative? Continuing on the "garbage barge steaming off to Nowhere."

Biting critique of suburbia.

j.w.k.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing sequel, November 19, 2002

By	"gabed" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

I was enthralled by Kunstler's first book, _The Geography of Nowhere_, but extremely disappointed by _Home from Nowhere_. His strength in _The Geography of Nowhere_ was in pointing out the fatal flaws in post-war urban planning - that he is at once disgusted, cynical and passionate about city design made it a compelling read. But _Home from Nowhere_ falls flat as often happens when someone who is very good at finding problems decides to find solutions. Kunstler's proposals are often not helpful, and many (esp. in the area of property tax reform) have already been tried unsuccessfully in a few cities. Kunstler seems to have become a devotee of Andres Duany - but Duany's _Suburban Nation_ is a much more worthwhile read for those interested in eliminating suburban sprawl and poor urban planning.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars passionate but uneven, February 17, 2004

By A Customer

This book started out on a strong note, with Kunstler's typically searing rhetoric and a well-written overview of what's wrong with American city and town planning. However, it soon deteriorated into undisciplined discussions about farming and the political saga of Saratoga Springs. Eventually, the book peters out almost completely, as Kunstler waxes nostalgic about his boyhood in New York and ends with a bizarre, egocentric soliloquy that has something to do with painting a McDonald's and biking to the YMCA.

I was disappointed with the unevenness of this book, especially after such a powerful, interesting beginning. Also, Kunstler's personality and opinions on certain issues are likely to turn some readers off; he frequently seems almost crotchety and bitter as he frowns on things like "teenage rebellion," rock & roll, and "black Nationalism." Although Kunstler's commitment to sound planning principles is admirable, his views on more complex sociopolitical issues are so simplistic as to just make him seem stupid (for example, he essentially denies the significance of systematic racial discrimination). Unfortunately, Kunstler makes it seem like he wants to go back to the ultimate '50s version of small-town life, complete with corner five-and-dime stores, ballgames in the Ramble, and cheery milk deliverymen. He does *not* seem to favor exciting urban development like the kind happening in Europe, since it might contain people "dressed in high top sneakers and a sideways hat."

I would recommend Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere" to this sequel. Or if you must read this book, maybe you could follow it up with something like William Upski Wimsatt's "Bomb the Suburbs," which at least shows an appreciation for the vibrancy of *modern* city life.