three critical issues presented by james howard kunstler in geography of nowhere.docx

8/11/2019 Three Critical Issues presented by James Howard Kunstler in Geography of Nowhere.docx

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Three Critical Issues presented by James Howard Kunstler in Geography of Nowhere, 1994.

The purpose of this essay will be to identify three critical issues, discussed in Kunstlers, Geography of

Nowhere, affecting America in the 21st

century. The three critical issues will be presented in an

historical perspective showing their influence on Americas communities, social structure and the fabric

of the nation. The negative influence the issues have upon American culture and way of life will be

presented, along with the magnitude of change necessary to lessen the critical issues destruction upon

society.

James Howard Kunstler describes himself in the About the Author endnote to Home From Nowhere ,

(1988) as the author of The Geography of Nowhere, eight novels, and several books for children.

Kunstler relates that he has worked as a newspaper reporter and an editor for Rolling Stone, and

frequently contributes to The New York Times Magazine. Since 1998, Kunstler has added social critic,

public speaker and blogger to the list of credits. Kunstler has recently published another book, The Long

Emergency (July 2012) that focuses on the ending of our global oil reserves and its catastrophic impact

on our society. Kunstlers writing are passionate, acerbic rantings against the foibles of the 20th

century that has created the world chronicled in Geography of Nowhere. A safe assumption is that no

one reads Kunstler without a reaction registering at the far ends of polarization- Kunstler either

impassions the reader with angst, anger and desire to fix the wrongs before time runs out; or a rolling

of the eyes about doomsday prophecies. The critics of the published world and political arena have not

escaped the polarization of reactions to Kunstler. Bill Kaufman likened Kunstler to ..that scourge of

suburbia James Howard Kunstler and slashingly [sic] witty Jeremiah

The first of the critical issues the writer of this this essay is struck by is the advent of the automobile and

the all-encompassing impact upon our landscape (with the(highway system), its rewriting of our social

networking and altering of Americas way of life. Kunstler introduces the automobile as, There was

nothing like if before in history: a machine that promised liberation from the daily bondage of place.

Within the same paragraph Kunstler sets the storyline for the automobiles impact on America, In the

early years of motoring, hardly anyone understood the automobiles potential for devastation- not just


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of the landscape, or the air, but of culture in general.

The introduction of the automobile into the American consciousness unleashed a need for the individualized

ability to travel that has not slackened in the 94 years since, the federal government got into the act of

subsidizing auto use in 1916 with the $75 million Federal Road Act..

The paving of dirt roads, the creation of a national highway network,

federal funding of road building, has created a society where the pathw ays for automobiles outweighs any

other consideration in our building of our cities. The drain on our national and local resources by

the omnipotent worship of the automobile has crippled many other aspects of our communities and

therefore our society. Mercier point out that, North America, with about 5% of the world population,

uses about 40% of the worlds transportation energy

Our dependency on the automobile has

reached epic proportions. The automobile has become the dominant force upon our b uilt environment

and how we move about our world. Cities are no longer buildings, civic centers of social interaction they have

become highways and wide boulevards with a built environment squeezed in between their

concrete ribbons. And Americans have become addicted to the flight from fright capabilities afforded by

the automobile. Peter Calthorpe is cited in Zieglers . Urban Sprawl, Most households now own two

or more automobiles and miles travelled by automobile continue to rise. In most areas th e total

increase in miles traveled each year has been double the rate of population growth.

This phenomenon has allowed those who can contribute most to the growth of a city or community to flee,

leaving behind those who cannot take advantage of our sup erhighways and must live amongst the

buildings of our city.

The unique American necessity to move about in an individually owned mode of transportation has

reached the level where our built environments continue to consume open space and lessen community

population densities to allow for the necessary roads. Edward Zeigler, in Urban Sprawl notes that, The

hypersprawl built environment consists largely of isolated pods of development connected by major

arterial roads and highways. Its landscape is totally shaped and dominated by the automobile.

The automobile has allowed citizens to flee their home place, rather than commit an investment to fixing the


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community rather than trading it for a perceived better land. Kunstler addresses zoning, corporate

support, federal support, modernism and the age of machines, that all allowed the migration out of

communities via the automobile. The far reaching impact on our social fabric can be seen in the

changing population densities in the latter half of the twentieth century. Robert Geddes, In Metropolis

Unbound, points out, Between 1970 and 1990, for example the population of Chicago metropolitan

area increased by only 4%, while the amount of land area increased by 46%. (as quoted in Zeigler. Page

31)

As our cities imploded upon themselves with industrial monopolies of land, resources and

transportation of manufactured goods, our civic control of how the city would be developed gave way to

the all demanding need to accommodate the automobile. As our cities ch oked, land developers fed the

disenchanted suburbia and the federal government funded the pathway out of the city. Which has

given the American landscape sprawl. The second critical issue noted in Kunstlers, Geography of Nowhere is

the appalling feature of our

landscape, sprawl. In 1996 and 1998, sprawl was not as common term for suburban expansion into

underdeveloped (rural) areas as it is used today. Kunstler only uses the word twice (via index) in

Geography of Nowhere, and again refers to in with the actual verbiage only once (index) in Home from

Nowhere. But, Kunstler rails about it in his discussions about the mass exodus from cities of populations

moving (via the automobile) out of the historical city into newly formed housing developing sitting atop

farm fields. Sprawl is a result of zoning, the rewriting of a citys features to accommodate the

automobile, and the very fact that people could utilize the automobile to evacuate from what the city

had become- to open areas of green space. To inhabit a featureless home in an area of only homes - and

area with no history of civic pride. The automobile allowed to easy of an access route for escape into

sprawl.

A laymans definition of sprawl is the moving outwards to outlying areas around a city of a segment of

the population. Though the term was not prevalent in Kunstlers two books, the cause and effect are

major themes in his works. The cause of sprawl can be derived from many socio and economic

perspectives. The origination of sprawl is best defined by its catalysts.


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