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 21
st
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
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
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.
Many authors have argued that sprawl is caused by government policies such as highway
subsidies, the home mortgage interest deduction, and insufficient funding of urban public serves
(such as subways). Others have claimed that sprawl comes from a desire to avoid blacks or he
poor. While some of these forces abetted the rise of sprawl, the root cause of U.S[.] sprawl is
form more prosaic- the technological superiority of the automobile.
The automobile has been the means of escape from the city. An escape to what had been perceived as
the American dream. Instead, it has become what Kunstler so passionately wrote about - nowhere.
The mobility that Americans prize so highly is the final ingredient in the debasement of
housing . The freedom to pick up and move is a premise of the national experience. It is the
physical expression of the freedom to move upward in socially, absent in other societies. The
automobile allowed this expression to be carried to absurd extremes. Our obsession with
mobility, the urge to move on every few years, stands at odds with the wish to endure in a
beloved place, and no place can be worthy of that kind of deep love if we are willing to
abandon it on short notice for a few extra dollars. Rather, we choose to live in Noplace, and
our dwellings show it. In every corner of the nation we have built places unworthy of love and
move on from them without regret. But move on to what? Where is the ultimate destination
when every place is Noplace?
xThe most emotionally educing paragraph in Geography of Nowhere. Skeletal cities, bleak suburbs,
homes with no emotional attachment- occupied by drones that escape into television and commute to
work inside their secluded private automobiles. No attachment to the place they call home, nor the
possession of a community they contribute to in any substantive way.