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James Howard Kunstler Biography

James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler (born October 19, 1948) is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere (1994), a history of American suburbia and urban development, The Long Emergency (2005), and most recently, Too Much Magic (2012). In The Long Emergency, he argues that declining oil production is likely to result in the end of industrialized society as we know it and force Americans to live in smaller-scale, localized, agrarian (or semi-agrarian) communities. Starting with World Made by Hand in 2008, Kunstler has written a series of science fiction novels about such a culture in the future.

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James Howard Kunstler Quotes

Once energy problems gain traction, there will be a large new class of economic losers, and consequently a lot of social turbulence.

Class, Energy, Gains, Large, Losers, Social

I abhor the word "consumer. " Consumers, unlike citizens, have no implicit duties, obligations, or responsibilities to the common good. It's a degrading term. The use of it degrades the public discussion.

Citizens, Common, Degrading, Obligations, Responsibility, Use

The living arrangements American now think of as normal are bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically and spiritually.

Arrangements, Ecologically, Living, Normal, Thinking

I have a new theory of history, which is certain things happen because they seem like a good idea at the time. And suburbia seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was a special time and place in history, with special dynamics. And now, we're going to have to live with the consequences of that. And the consequences will be tragic.

Special, Tragic, Suburbia, Theory, Like

Suburbia is the insidious cartoon of the country house in a cartoon of the country.

Cartoon, Country, House, Suburbia

I believe most of suburbia is unreformable and will not be fixed.

Believe, Fixed, I Believe, Suburbia

The public realm in America has two roles: it is the dwelling place of our civilization and our civic life, and it is the physical manifestation of the common good. When you degrade the public realm, you will automatically degrade the quality of your civic life and the character of all the enactments of your public life and communal life that take place there.

America, Character, Civic, Dwelling, Dwelling Place, Quality

We will have to make new arrangements, or revive bygone ones. We may, for another example, see the return of the boarding house.

Example, House, May, Ones, Return, See

America does not want change, except from the cash register at Wal-Mart.

America, Cash, Change, Doe, Register

I won't deny the polemical elements in my work, but they are less in the service of attempting to reform human behavior than the delighted exercise of my rather malicious sense of humor - especially vis-a-vis the horrifying everyday environment we have produced for ourselves. These mall-scapes, burb-scapes, urban wildernesses, starchitect stunts, and other toxic contexts for our daily lives express about every human vice, stupidity, and blunder that it is possible for a society to make. It all leads, really, to a psychological place where only comedy or despair make sense.

Despair, Elements, Everyday, Exercise, Stupidity, Urban

Our building practices for the past century have been plain stupid - especially the glorification of the single-family house in a subdivision, at the expense of all other typologies and arrangements.

Arrangements, Past, Plain, Practice, Practices, Stupid

Anyone who studies the energy predicament understands its connection with the operations of capital - and by this I do not mean capitalism as an ideology, I mean the behavior of acquired wealth and its deployment for productive purpose. (A lot of educated idiots don't understand this, and we waste a lot of time blathering about capitalism. )

Deployment, Energy, Mean, Studies

The increment of new development will be the single building lot, if we are lucky, and most of the codes that are now enforced will be ignored because the redundancies they mandate will not be affordable.

Building, Development, Enforced, Ignored, Lucky

We might hope that the law as a profession does not vanish, because justice may vanish with it - but we could probably do with far fewer lawyers. Since I think agriculture will come back closer to the center of life, I think there will be many vocational opportunities there - especially with the so-called 'value-added' activities associated with food production. That's a windy way to say more local wine and cheese-makers - and probably fewer giant factories producing cheez doodles and Pepsi Cola.

Associated, Closer, Opportunity, Probably, Thinking, Wine

I like to call it 'the national automobile slum. ' You can call it suburban sprawl. I think it's appropriate to call it the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.

History, Inspiration, Motivation, Sprawl, Suburban, Thinking

Americans threw away their communities in order to save a few dollars on hair dryers and plastic food storage tubs, never stopping to reflect on what they were destroying.

Community, Destroying, Dryers, Hair, Order

The ideas of [ Le Corbusier ] that actually found their way into practice were deeply destructive - for instance, the tower-in-a-park, which mutated into the vertical slums of the late 20th century.

Practice, Ideas, Towers, Mutated, Century

We are in for a fiesta of default, repossession, and distress selling of suburban property, much of which will lose its presumed usefulness and monetary value in an energy-scarce economy.

Economy, Energy, Fiesta, Lose, Repossession

I believe we are deluded about alternative energy. The key is, whatever we do, we're going to have to do on a very modest scale. It's all about scale. We're not going to build giant wind farms with Godzilla-sized turbines all over the place. That's a fantasy.

Believe, Giant, Keys, Modest, Wind Farms

Consider how badly-built suburbia is. Many business buildings are not designed to outlast their tax depreciation periods, and the McHouses are made of particle board, vinyl siding, and stapled-on trim. A lot of suburbia will simply become the slums of the future. Most of the rest will be salvage or ruins.

Boards, Depreciation, Rest, Ruins, Tax, Vinyl

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