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  • The Geography of Nowhere

  • The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
  • By: James Howard Kunstler
  • Narrated by: Al Kessel
  • Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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The Geography of Nowhere

By: James Howard Kunstler
Narrated by: Al Kessel
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Summary

In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good. "The future will require us to build better places," Kunstler says, "or the future will belong to other people in other societies."

The Geography of Nowhere has become a touchstone work in the two decades since its initial publication, its incisive commentary giving language to the feeling of millions of Americans that our nation's suburban environments were ceasing to be credible human habitats. Since that time, the work has inspired city planners, architects, legislators, designers, and citizens everywhere.

©1993, 2016 James Howard Kunstler (P)2019 Tantor
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Fascinating Perspective

I love his observations of our habitation and relation with the landscape over the pasted 50 years in the US. His comments on the physiological, spiritual and physical impact our modern design decisions on the human endeavour is intriguing. I would have liked a deeper explanation of the fundamental civic responsibilities of buildings such as space, light and permeability of the street, but sure you can’t have everything. The performance is average but still delivers the material in a digestible way.
I would recommend this for anyone who values architecture.
The reason for the five stars is that this book help me to articulate some of my intuitions regarding the oppressive direction civic construction is taking us.

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