Remarks in Hudson, NYJanuary 8, 2005James Howard Kunstler My last three books were concerned with the physical arrangement of life in our nation, in particular suburban sprawl, the most destructive development pattern the world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known.The world – and of course the more »
Tom Wolf’s Charlotte Simmons
I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe Reviewed by Jim Kunstler Some years ago, ubermaster journalist Tom Wolfe published an essay in Harper’s Magazine, Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast, in which he upbraided American novel-writers for their narcissistic navel-gazing and miniaturism and challenged them to grapple with the fascinating spectacle of the contemporary scene on the more »
Remarks in Providence
This nation faces a terrible, paradoxical challenge. We are now called on to defend the American way of life against a furtive, resourceful enemy. But how much of what we are called on to defend is actually worth defending? Events now require us to become very clear in our individual minds, and our collective imagination, about what more »
Las Vegas: Utopia of Clowns from ‘The City in Mind’
They say that Antarctica is the worst place on earth, but I believe that distinction belongs to Las Vegas, hands down. For one thing, Antarctica is more pleasing to look at. The natural scenery is about equal to Nevada’s in desolate grandeur, but Antarctica’s man-made artifacts are less distressing to an average human being’s neural network. The population of more »
Remarks in Bologna, Italy, To the conference of “The Other Moderns”
I spent a lot of time last autumn in what we call the Sunbelt of America — Atlanta, Houston, Orlando, Florida. This was necessarily a very depressing project, because what we have achieved in American urbanism is what I like to call the National Automobile Slum. It’s all the same and it’s all terrible. The more »
Remarks to the Cities of the Future Conference
Sacramento, December 1999 (slightly edited to eliminate repetition) . . . the sad truth of the matter is that the United States is increasingly composed of thousands of places that are not worth caring about. The ultimate result will be a nation and a way of life that is not worth caring about or defending! more »
Where Evil Dwells – Reflections on the Columbine School Massacre
Paper Delivered at theCongress for the New Urbanism by James Howard Kunstler Milwaukee, June 6, 1999 When we set aside all the technical considerations and all the familiar economic arguments and tedious political angles that swirl around this enormous and momentous field of human ecology, we’re left with the question of how it affects our more »
Remarks by James Howard Kunstler to the Florida AIA
Orlando, August, 1998 One hundred years ago, a cultural movement swept across the United States, galvanizing leaders in politics and the arts with the power of an idea. That movement was the City Beautiful movement, and its animating idea was that Americans deserved to live in better towns and cities. This was a more »
The final chapter of ‘Home From Nowhere’
The final chapter ofHome From Nowhere Simon & Schuster, 1996 12 Coda What I Live For There are times I feel so fortunate that I wonder if I am making up this life as it as it traces its mysterious arc through time. Solipsism is not a very attractive philosophy — especially more »