Book Description
The Geography of Nowhere traces America's evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular, where the cities are dead zones and the countryside is a wasteland of cartoon architecture and parking lots.
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."
Customer Reviews:
luddite indictment of a car .......2007-05-22
The book is well written and provides a lot of facts, though many of these may be known anyhow. However, the author's pet idea - that the car is THE reason for aberrations in suburban development - begins to be more and more irritating as we read on; there is one large chapter devoted to the car and road planning, but if this were not enough the point gets reiterated every few paragraphs. Perhaps indeed the car is the ultimate evil of modern civilization; if only we didn't have to reread this again and again.
As a form of compensation, we get very limited look at the social, economic and demographic causes of all landscape changes during past century. Yes, there is a mention of some historical events, such as WWII, but it disappears under the weight of all those cars blamed for commercial strips, parking lots and suburban housing. Somehow, the population growth, which the strips, suburbs, parking lots and cars try to accomodate, gets overlooked. But then, we get also a healthy dose of nostagia after the goode olde times, when towns were small, kids could play in the streets without a risk of traffic accident, and farms were the base of economy. I could not escape the impression that the author's leading motive was to lament the lifestyles gone.
A Worthy Rant.......2007-02-08
This is book is largely a rant--well-researched and eloquent--but a rant nonetheless. Overwrought with cynicism, it is hard to distinguish Kunstler's reasonable concerns from his own sense of nostalgia. He draws some erroneous parallels (e.g. holding Disney World to the standard of anything but an amusement park) but does make an effective point regarding how U.S. citizens were ill-prepared for the after effects of the heyday of the automobile.
Fundamentally, Kunstler's cynicism aside, he's an advocate for renewed interest in civic planning, decreased dependency on fossil fuels, and models of sustainability. He presents Portland, OR as the best model for a city and the community of Seaside, FL as the model for a smaller town. He sees urban planning as the opportunity to develop while respecting the present landscape and enriching sense of community and public space.
The weakness of the book lies in the author's bitterness, which disguises his very real passion for the topic. The saving grace is that given most of his likely readership, he is preaching to the choir who understands his anger. This choir will understand that Kunstler embeds important lessons in his bleak diatribe--lessons worth embracing.
Kunstler's Gift of Entertaining While Informing.......2006-11-29
I have little more to add to the many thorough reviews already posted, so I'll just note what grabbed me: it was the rare book that was fun to read, even while dealing with serious societal problems in a thoughtful manner. A great introduction to community development issues.
highway to hell.......2006-02-01
Last night in his State of the Union speech, G. W. Bush pointed out the obvious fact that America depends far too heavily on oil to support its lifestyle. Whoever programmed him to say that must have been reacting to the mounting unrest over the crises associated with big oil: war, pollution, corruption, and extreme flabbiness.
Most of the problems associated with oil are problems associated with cars, and cars are the focus of J. H. Kunstler's book. Published in the early 90s, The Geography of Nowhere describes the impact of automobiles on the development of the U.S. Apparently, things started to go south during the Depression, when people were driven out of cities by poverty and the diminishing quality of life in the tenements. Fueling the flight to the suburbs were New Deal programs to build roads and cheap houses. In the ensuing decades the American landscape was built to serve cars rather than people, and that is what Kunstler is angry about. His main criticisms are:
1) A lot of the architecture, both residential and commerical, is very ugly. Buildings are constructed quickly and cheaply, and without regard to their surroundings. After all, what's the point of worrying about your surroundings if people are just going to drive directly to their destination? On this point, Kunstler is angry and sarcastic, though often funny. However, his tone is unfortunate, because ugliness is ultimately a matter of opinion, and I would bet that most people would say they are quite happy living in their suburban boxes. Kunstler argues that people are happy this way because they don't know any better, and he's probably right, but as far as I know there is no good way to force people to appreciate beauty.
2) When you step back from the individual buildings, and look at the organization of towns and cities, things start to look really grim. Here Kunstler's got a good point. Throughout most of America, the landscape is zoned into residential and commercial districts, which are separated by long stretches of four-lane roads. The residential zones are further divided by income (and to a lesser extent, by race and ethnicity), impeding the development of anything like a genuine community. The result is a weird mix of intolerance and paranoia that pervades the culture of what has historically been a relatively progressive nation.
3) At an even larger scale, the impact of cars on the nation and on the world seems absolutely dire. The Geography of Nowhere was written before car companies had figured out how to trick yuppies into buying pick-up trucks, and by now there is a broad scientific consensus that the Earth's climate is getting warmer as a result of human activities. Yet people continue to buy bigger and bigger SUVs, and to drive them longer distances to get to work or to buy their microwaveable burritos. It's like a hideous inversion of the idea of public transportation, in which every individual drives his or her own bus to work. Here it's not merely a matter of personal preference -- it's only possible for an individual to drive an SUV if other people subsidize the cost of cheap oil and environmental degradation. In all likelihood these other people haven't been born yet.
Ultimately, someone has to make decisions about the development of towns and cities, and there's no reason in a democratic society why these decisions have to be based on short-term economic interests. Although most suburbanites are probably not miserable in their surroundings, I doubt if anyone would consider their dependence on cars to be ideal. The Geography of Nowhere is a good way to start thinking about kicking the habit.
The Rise and Decline of Humanity.......2006-01-01
I believe that many of the ways we view our lives and live it is directly related to the relation of space, especially where our homes are and what we do daily.
Kunstler points out very cunningly and sometimes with anger how horrible America has set up its cities - cities of which I usually refer to as 'Suburbia World' and America, for a large part, really has turned into a world of suburbia, of endless homes stacked next to each other in a large sea, of which all its inhabitants commute to a Office park some 30 miles away.
Anyway, although Kunstler does not cover as in-depth as I believe he should, he points out many architectural and planning elements that even I, as an architecture student in Los Angeles, have never truly observed. He so well argues against suburban development that I am, even more than before, inspired to work on architectural projects that have nothing to do with suburban qualities (although this shall be very difficult).
If you are looking for a book to explain how horrible our cities really are (especially in the suburban world) and have never had the vocabulary to express that please read this book, it is something I wish everyone could understand and react to.
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The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. (book reviews): An article from: Planning
Manufacturer: American Planning Association
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ASIN: B0008VBJFG
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Planning, published by American Planning Association on September 1, 1993. The length of the article is 642 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. (book reviews)
Publication:
Planning (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1993
Publisher: American Planning Association
Volume: v59
Issue: n9
Page: p32(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) may not have been a handsome man, but he was an exceptional painter of himself. This sumptuous catalog, published to coincide with the exhibition of his self-portraits at the National Gallery in London, has glossy reproductions of all the paintings and etchings from the show, plus copies of works that are long lost and some not released by the galleries or private collectors who own them. The images are all thoroughly annotated to elucidate their history, and the scholarship is impressive, being mostly drawn from the Rembrandt Research Project, which for years has been working with a combination of x-ray technology and patient research to ascertain the age of the pictures and confirm the identity of their painter. This is not easy work: Rembrandt had many pupils, and he encouraged them to copy his own self-portraits as practice, leading to the unusual situation of a host of Rembrandt self-portraits not actually painted by the master himself. The findings of the project have been contentious, with paintings unexpectedly relegated or elevated through reappraisal. What shines through, though, is the sheer diversity of Rembrandt's genius: the early paintings and etchings in which he turns to a mirror to study expression; the periods of dressing up variously as an Oriental potentate, a soldier, an artisan, and St. Paul; and the famous trilogy of self-portraits painted in his final year that seem to show a man old beyond his years. The catalog also contains a selection of works by his pupils Gerrit Dou and Samuel van Hoogstraten and essays by Rembrandt scholars that seek to revise the somewhat romantic conceit that the series is some sort of spiritual autobiography. Rembrandt by Himself, an intelligent and resourceful accompaniment to the exhibition, will continue to transport the reader long after the portraits in the exhibition have returned to their respective homes. --David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Scrutinizing his own features time and time again, Rembrandt left an extensive pictorial autobiography-his surviving self-portraits include 45 oil paintings, scores of drawings, and over 30 etchings. This absorbing book explores how Rembrandt`s self-portraits developed over his life span, why the genre was so important in his work, and how his innovative style influenced his contemporaries.
Customer Reviews:
The autobiography as a series of masterpieces.......2005-01-10
Rembrandt tells his own story as a series of self- portraits. He traces his life from early youth to sad old age. He presents himself posing as if he understands the self can be a social construct. He creates great masterpieces including the Frick self- portrait where he sits as master and ruler , king of the world of art. He in telling his story looks deeply into his soul and traces a single life as no other painter before or since has. Even his great countryman Van Gogh cannot in his hair and soul raising self- portraits touch the depth and broad humanity of the Rembrandt self - portrait and soul .This is human art at its highest, and most inspiring. Who reads this book reads a great painter and great soul, one of mankind's greatest gifts to itself.
The Master.......2000-04-03
It's about time that I found a (good) book on this subject. Rembrandts self-portraits (I feel) are of his most important work. The quality of the prints are wonderful...unlike 90% of the art related books floating around. The color reproduction is more accurate than most. This is a must have for any fan of Rembrandt...or for any true lover of painting.
Wonderful book on the self portraits of the master........1999-11-23
This book is facinating. It includes three good and fairly dry essays on the topic of Rembrandt's self portraits. More interesting are the prints of all the works that are considered his self portraits, and the detailed commentary on these works. The prints are very good and quite useful for the lover of Rembrandt.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on August 9, 1999. The length of the article is 615 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Retratos de toda una vida.(Rembrandt, pintor; exposición; Galería Nacional de Londres)(TT: Portraits of a lifetime.)(TA: Rembrandt, painter; exhibition; London National Gallery)
Publication:
Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 9, 1999
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 58
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
It's a well-kept secret that the Library of Congress oversees a collection of photographs numbering in excess of three million, the bulk of which are in the public domain. Among the highlights of that collection are Evans' remarkable images of the Depression era--part of a larger photographic project that employed Dorothea Lange and others--documenting the effects of soil erosion in Mississippi, the plight of Arkansas flood victims and the day-to-day lives of Alabama sharecroppers. The mood of the period is evoked strongly by nearly 500 photographs, many reproduced here for the first time; others are memorable for their inclusion in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
Customer Reviews:
a good reference for 30's exteriors.......1999-02-19
This book would be a good choice for a set designer interested in 30's exteriors. There are great photos of signage, rundown storefronts, churches, one or two fields and a couple of interiors. This shouldn't be your only resource but is a worthy addition to your collection.
Book Description
America's last great newspaper strip, presented the way it should be read!
Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead is a pop culture icon. The surrealist-leaning character is one of the most recognizable figures on the newspaper pages, seen by tens of millions of people a day. Syndicated by King Features since 1986, Zippy is read in hundreds of daily newspapers across the country, while the Pinhead's trademark non-sequitur, "Are we having fun yet?," has become so often repeated it's in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. His likeness has been grafittied on the Berlin Wall and aped for Saturday Night Live's classic "Conehead" sketches.
This new Zippy collection features approximately a year's worth of strips, from November 2003 through November 2004, including full-color Sundays. Follow Zippy as he weaves in and out of "Bushmiller Country" (the land formerly inhabited by Ernie Bushmiller's classic Nancy comic strip) and —as if things weren't strange enough— he suddenly begins spouting Japanese, French, Russian, Farsi, Hungarian, Greek, Finnish and Latin!
Zippy meets aliens, revisits Levittown (his birthplace) with Griffy, confronts the evil "Ziggy" and frolics with advertising icons like Reddy Kilowatt, Mr. Bubble, Colonel Sanders and the long-forgotten Unifax Astroboy. Oh, yeah, and he takes a long, hot bath (without Mr. Bubble).
Unlike most newspaper pages, the book sports top notch reproduction worthy of Griffith's master draftsmanship. Part satire, part philosophy, and part surrealism, Zippy is one having fun pinhead and the perfect antidote to the real world. 128 pages, 24 in color.
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Detours: From Classrooms to a Guatemalan Coffee Farm
A. Gray Thompson
Manufacturer: iUniverse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0595295339 |
Book Description
A. Gray Thompson is the type of teacher you remember for decades after leaving his classroom. In this engaging memoir he welcomes us back into his class and demonstrates the special role teachers can play in our lives.
His detour-filled journey took him from a first job as a utility clerk to the toughest school in San Francisco, later to a Jesuit university in the Midwest, and ultimately to a small coffee farm in Guatemala called Finca Los Nietos. Along the way he raised five children, earned a doctorate at the University of California-Berkeley during the mid-1960's student revolt, was honored with two Fulbright Scholarships, and pursued hobbies ranging from wine making to jeweler.
This anecdote-filled memoir captures the many inspirations and frustrations that made up his 50 years in classrooms at all educational levels. His adoption of educational innovations, such as his own "memory maps" and the empowering Philosophy for Children, will inspire and remind parents and teachers of the magic that can happen in a classroom. But the most important lesson taught is that both teachers and students should never stop learning. Class is still in session at Finca Los Nietos. Come on in and take a seat.
Customer Reviews:
Marvelous Ramblings.......2004-01-06
Would that we all experienced a wise and witty philosopher-professor such as this gifted writer! A. Gray Thompson's life-wanderings took him from elementary to university classrooms, from a principal's office to a jewelry-making shed, from California to Wisconsin to Mexico to Central America to ... with lots of Detours and experiences along the way. He developed a "philosophy for children" program that's described in such a way that every teacher (and parent) can try it out. He also developed a worn-down coffee farm into a teaching tool for his indigenous Maya neighbors, while creating a botanic garden-wonder which I'm eager to visit some day.
Rich anecdotes of a curious observer and experimenter fill each chapter. All that's missing is a chance to sit with the author and hear him tell these experiences while sipping some of his coffee - but heck, make your own coffee, settle down in your own home, and let this brilliant fellow share his wisdom with a heavy dose of humor. These are marvelous ramblings indeed!
Book Description
In recent years, more fathers have attempted to win custody of their children following a divorce. In Fighting for Your Children, the authors help men who are facing such a battle, guiding them through the entire legal experience. Using anecdotes from fathers who have successfully gained full or joint custody of their children as well as from fathers who have met with failure, this book illustrates the dos and don'ts of waging a custody battle for children.
Customer Reviews:
Worth the read, but with caution........2005-08-15
This book depicts the judicial system as corrupt. If you start out with that in mind you will tend to feel victimized. The system is a collection of laws, attitudes, accepted norms and people doing a job. To expect everything to come to halt to take care of you and your children is unrealistic. Judges, lawyers, mediators and the rest of the system didn't get up this morning bent on doing you harm. They are doing a job, just as you do your job. With guidelines, bosses and parameters they have to meet.
To see everyone as "despicable people have zero regard for children or other people, but only for the money that they can extract at the expense of other people's pain and conflict" is debilitating.
This book is only a tool. A marginally good tool. You can see the low price for which it is being resold. It is worth the $7.00
what dads should look like when going to court.......2004-08-09
Numerous case studies are cited which are very interesting to read. There is also an excellent section on what dads should look like when going to court (hint: no flashy cufflinks, expensive suits, etc.). Very good read.
Great 4 Fathers who are Victims of a Corrupt Judicial System.......1999-12-02
This book was very well written and a valuable resource for fathers who have had their child kidnapped by an uncaring mother. The book exposes the judicial system for what it is-CORRUPT. Judges, lawyers, and their supporting cast are like the lions eating the Christians. Unfortunately, these despicable people have zero regard for children or other people, but only for the money that they can extract at the expense of other people's pain and conflict. It is ironic that those in charge of the judicial system should be the ones locked up behind bars for what they do is far more criminal than a typical crook. This book is good ammunition against these judical despots.
An informative read, written for moderate custody disputes.......1999-04-20
I just read the book and as a product of divorced parents I found it to be quite informative. I was comforted to learn that there are many, many people in my shoes. I would recommend this book to both people going through divorces, lawyers, and adult children of divorced parents.
Very depressing to read........1999-02-08
I am a woman and read this book for the benefit of my fiance and his daughter. While there were some excellent tips for figuring out a good strategy for winning custody battles, the examples of men's situations and numerous defeats was depressing! I was especially surprised by the number of men implying that their former spouses just suddenly went nuts and started acting crazy. If men can't get a CLUE, then they shouldn't get custody. If you're a man and you like the idea that women for the most part are stupid, bi-polar, and downright vindictive then you'll love this book. I do have to say that the advice given on looking for a good lawyer, and how to "act" in the courtroom were fairly good. If your ex is so awful that you feel propelled to read this book, I recommend "Joint Custody with a Jerk" instead.
Book Description
Whether it is Africa, Sri Lanka, or even Chechnya and Afghanistan, it is not heavy weaponry or hi-tech devices that kill the most people, but the flood of cheap, easy to get, small arms that has swept over so many countries in the 80s and 90s. Yet a lot of this cross-border arms trade is illegal. This important and readable new book seeks to advance our understanding of the illegal arms traffic. What precisely is involved? How is it conducted? Who are the players? What are the impacts? What needs to be done?
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating.......2002-07-21
This ia a fascinating and extremely relevant study on the illegal - black market - trade in small arms. The book covers the subject from instances of trafficking by arms dealers, government supplies to rebels in foreign countries, and the utility of national and international regulations.
A very good read.
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Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans, 1773-1815
Anne Salmond
Manufacturer: University of Hawaii Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0824820207 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Canadian Journal of History, published by University of Saskatchewan on August 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1068 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Between Worlds: Early Exchanges Between Maori and Europeans 1773-1815.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Ged Martin
Publication:
Canadian Journal of History (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 1999
Publisher: University of Saskatchewan
Volume: 34
Issue: 2
Page: 324
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- Human Dimension and Interior Space: A Source Book of Design Reference Standards
- Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
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