James Howard Kunstler

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James Howard Kunstler

Born 1948 (age 59–60)
New York City, United States
Occupation Author, social critic, blogger
Nationality American
Official website

James Howard Kunstler (born 1948) is an American author, social critic, and blogger who is perhaps best known for his book The Geography of Nowhere, a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He is prominently featured in the peak oil documentary, The End of Suburbia, widely circulated on the internet. In his most recent non-fiction book, The Long Emergency (2005), he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society and force Americans to live in localized, agrarian communities. He has written a science fiction novel conjecturing such a culture in the future, World Made by Hand in 2008.

Contents

[edit] Background

Kunstler was born in New York City to Jewish parents,[1] who divorced when he was eight.[2] His father was a middleman in the diamond trade.[1] He spent most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather, a publicity director on Broadway.[1] After spending summers at a boys camp in New Hampshire, he became acquainted with the small town ethos that would later permeate many of his works. In 1966 he graduated from New York City's High School of Music & Art (now Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts), and then attended the State University of New York at Brockport where he majored in Theater.

After college Kunstler worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for Rolling Stone. In 1975, he began writing books and lecturing full-time. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York and was formerly married to the children's author Jennifer Armstrong.

[edit] Writing

Described as a Jeremiah by The Washington Post, Kunstler has been an outspoken critic of suburbia and urban development trends throughout the United States, and has been a leading proponent of the New Urbanism movement. According to Scott Carlson, reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Kunstler's books on the subject have become "standard reading in architecture and urban planning courses".[3] He has summed up his attitude towards the current American landscape by describing it as follows:

“ The tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work [is] … a land full of places that are not worth caring about [and] will soon be a nation and a way of life that is not worth defending. ”
 
— James Kunstler

He has also written that:

“ …[the] physical arrangement of life in our nation, in particular suburban sprawl, [is] the most destructive development pattern the world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known. ”
 
— James Kunstler

He predicts the coming oil peak will have a catastrophic effect on society in his 2005 book The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes. He appeared in the documentary film The End of Suburbia (2004).

In addition to his other books on urban planning, Home From Nowhere, and The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition, Kunstler has also written several works of fiction, the most recent being World Made By Hand in 2008.

In an op-ed for Planetizen.com, he opined that in the wake of 9/11 that "age of skyscrapers is at an end".

[edit] Reactions and criticisms

Charles Bensinger, co-founder of Renewable Energy Partners of New Mexico, describes Kunstler's views as "fashionably fear-mongering" and uninformed regarding the potential of renewable energy, biofuels, energy efficiency and smart-growth policies to eliminate the need for fossil fuels.[4] Contrarily, Paul Salopek of The Chicago Tribune finds that, "Kunstler has plotted energy starvation to its logical extremes" and points to the US Department of Energy Hirsch report as drawing similar conclusions[5] while David Ehrenfeld writing for American Scientist sees Kunstler delivering a "powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change" with a "lengthy discussion of the alternatives to cheap oil."[6]

Kunstler, who has no formal training in the fields in which he prognosticates, made similar predictions for Y2K as he makes for peak oil.[7][8] Kunstler responds to this criticism by saying that a Y2K catastrophe was averted by the hundreds of billions of dollars that were spent fixing the problem, a lot of it in secret, he claims.[9]

In June 2005 and again in early 2006, Kunstler predicted that the Dow would crash to 4,000 by the end of the year.[10] [11] The Dow in fact reached a new peak of approximately 12,500 by the end of 2006. In his predictions for 2007, Kunstler admitted his mistake, ascribing the Dow's climb to "inertia combined with sheer luck". [12]

In May 2008 oil reached $132 a barrel, lending credence to Kunstler's warnings about high energy prices. [13] Kunstler commented on the price surge, stating "I'm not cheerleading for doom, you understand... merely asserting that we have a problem in the USA. Our behavior and our lifestyle are not consistent with reality. The markets are registering this for the moment." [14]

The Albany Times Union reviewed World Made by Hand, opening with, "James Howard Kunstler is fiddling his way to the apocalypse, one jig at a time."[15] The reviewer calls it "a grim scenario" with "an upside" or two.[15]

[edit] Bibliography

Nonfiction

  • The Life of Byron Jaynes (1983)
  • Geography of Nowhere (1993)
  • Home from Nowhere (1996)
  • The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition (2002)
  • The Long Emergency (2005)

Novels

  • The Wampanaki Tales (1979)
  • A Clown in the Moonlight (1981)
  • An Embarrassment of Riches (1985)
  • Blood Solstice (1986)
  • The Halloween Ball (1987)
  • Thunder Island (1989)
  • Maggie Darling: A Modern Romance (2003)
  • World Made by Hand (2008)

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c J Kunstler. Kunstler Memoirs: Off to College 1966. J Kunstler. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  2. ^ J Kunstler. Kunstler Memoirs: The Station 1957-63. J Kunstler. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  3. ^ Scott Carlson (2006-10-20). A Social Critic Warns of Upheavals to Come. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
  4. ^ Charles Bensinger (2005). Short Solutions to the Long Emergency (html). The Green Institute. Retrieved on 2007-08-18.
  5. ^ Paul Salopek. "Nigerian Oil Flows into Suburban America", The Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2006.
  6. ^ David Ehrenfeld (2005). The End is Nigh (html). American Scientist Online. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.
  7. ^ Kunstler, James (1999-04-01). My Y2K—A Personal Statement. archive.org. Retrieved on 2006-11-12.
  8. ^ Kunstler, Jim (1999). My Y2K—A Personal Statement (html). Kunstler, Jim. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
  9. ^ James Kunstler (2006). The Twang Factor (html). Retrieved on 2006-12-22.
  10. ^ James Kunstler (2005). Cluster Fuck Nation June 2005 (html). Retrieved on 2007-02-20.
  11. ^ James Kunstler (2006). Kunstler Predictions for 2006 (html). Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
  12. ^ Jim Kunstler (2007). Jim Kunstler's Forecasts 2007. Jim Kunstler. Retrieved on 2008-03-28.
  13. ^ Oil prices pass $132 after government reports supply drop. Associated Press (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
  14. ^ James Kunstler (2008). Daily Grunt. Retrieved on 2008-05-21.
  15. ^ a b Grondahl, Paul, "No oil? Cities in ruins? Welcome to Kunstler's 'World'", Albany Times Union March 16, 2008, page J1 to J2.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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