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

Kunstler has assembled a well crafted, thought out, and insightful piece of vitriolic ranting against the evils of sprawl and the stupidity of the suburban U.S. mindset that has taken over much of our country. I'm thoroughly impressed by the amount of spite that the reader can feel emanating from the book as they read it - almost as if Kunstler infused each copy with a bit of his own hatred.That said, he has a lot of suggestions for making improvements - some practical, some impractical. There are copious examples of things done well, stories of success, stories of failure, and discussions of why we can't sustain our current mindset.If you're looking for a blueprint - look elsewhere such as Duany's original works, Comeback Cities, or read Planetizen. If you want concrete examples of why suburban development is moronic, and a healthy dose of spite and anger, read this book.

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.

If you are tired of miles of suburban sameness and strip-malls, James Kunstler offers some alternatives. He is an author, not a city planner, but he spent years learning about what is wrong with the current trends in city/town development.He found some great examples of mixed-use developments around the US and clearly states both successes and the challenges that they have faced.The book is a little dated (that's why 4 stars) but you can see today how some of the trends discussed have been implemented in new development, at least here around Atlanta.

A lot of my early intuitions now make sense after reading this book - why my drinking companions & I preferred old pubs in medieval towns than the soulless council estate boozing boxes.

Dated but worth a read if you have an interest in learning about how almost every city/town in the USA became (and still is) a near continuous stream of strip malls and suburban sprawled homes. Is it any wonder people 'linger' at the local supermarket in search of people to talk to or the chance opportunity to meet a neighbor and chat!

This book was a little ahead of its time as far as mass consumption was concerned.....not that popularity is the indicator of a great work.I enjoyed it, and believe it offers a valuable perspective on the transience ('cause we're finally starting to tear down or abandon those places...or heartily wish we could) and hostility of the modernistsuburban garbage that has been foisted on us.This should be required reading for all architects and urban planners.

Kunstler is an excellent writer and this is an excellent book.

This book is very good and picks up with more details and insight from Geography Of Nowhere. Here we explore with the lens what lead to the North America depreciation of territory and the lack of public spaces, along with places worth caring for. If you like his previous one, if you like urban design, urban behavior, this book is for you. Good pricing!