James Howard Kunstler
James Howard Kunstler | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. |
Occupation | Writer, social critic, blogger |
Spouse | Jennifer Armstrong (1996-2002) |
Website | |
Kunstler.com |
James Howard Kunstler is an American writer,
Background
Kunstler was born in New York City to
He lives in Greenwich, a town in Washington County, New York.
Education
In 1966, Kunstler graduated from New York City's
Career
After college, Kunstler worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for Rolling Stone. During the 1970s and 1980s, Kunstler worked "a lot of odd jobs, from orderly in the psychiatric wing of the hospital, to digging holes for percolation tests in housing subdivisions".[3]
In 1975, he began writing books and lecturing full-time. Kunstler's blog states that he has lectured at
Kunstler lectured on topics related to suburbia, urban development, and the challenges of what he calls "the global oil predicament", and a resultant change in the "American Way of Life." He lectured at the TED Conference, the American Institute of Architects, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the National Association of Science and Technology, as well as at numerous colleges and universities, including Yale, MIT, Harvard, Cornell, University of Illinois, DePaul, Texas A & M, the USMA, and Rutgers University.
As a journalist, Kunstler wrote articles for The Atlantic Monthly, Slate.com, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and its op-ed page where he covered environmental and economic issues. Kunstler is also a supporter of the movement known as New Urbanism.
His career peaked with the popularising of the concept of
Political views
Kunstler is a harsh critic of both the Republican Party, describing them as "a gang of hypocritical, pietistic sadists, seeking pleasure in the suffering of others while pretending to be Christians, devoid of sympathy, empathy, or any inclination to simple human kindness, constant breakers of the Golden Rule, enemies of the common good."[5] and also the Democratic Party and their "underhanded attempts" to get rid of Donald Trump, a man whom Kunstler sees as showing "strength".[6] He was also a promoter of the concept of a so-called "deep state" working to overthrow and thwart Trump.[7] He endorsed Trump for re-election and declared that he intended to do "everything he can to prevent the Democrats from winning the election."[8]
In an interview with
In recent times, Kunstler has had financial problems,[11] and was described as "seethingly angry" about his writing income falling to only a few thousand dollars annually because of "the tidal wave of free content on the web". In addition, his "lucrative college speaking fees" have disappeared, which he blames on "the rising hysteria on campus against threatening ideas". Kunstler now uses Patreon to crowdfund his writing.[11]
In an interview with Doug Casey published on October 13, 2021, Kunstler called the COVID-19 pandemic a "scam",[12] and on October 11 he published the debunked vaccine conspiracy theory that the vaccine would kill people "steadily over the weeks and months" and went on to name hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as "effective" treatments.[13]
It’s getting harder to conceal the deaths and injuries caused by the vaccines, including a striking drop in fertility and the permanent damage to millions of people’s immune systems that will lay them low with cancer, neurological illness, and cardiovascular disease in the months ahead.
— Jim Kunstler, How Low can You Go?, [14]
Writing
Over the course of the first 14 years of his writing career (1979–1993), Kunstler wrote seven novels.
Since the mid-1990s, he has written four non-fiction books about suburban development and diminishing global oil supplies. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, his first work on the subject, The Geography of Nowhere, discussed the effects of "cartoon architecture, junked cities, and a ravaged countryside".[15] The book was described as a jeremiad by The Washington Post. Kunstler is critical of suburbia and urban development trends throughout the United States, and is a 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".[16]
He describes America as a poorly planned and "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."
In his books that followed, such as Home From Nowhere, The City in Mind, and The Long Emergency (2005), he discussed topics in the context of a coming post-oil America. Kunstler says he wrote The Geography of Nowhere, "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about 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".[4]
In his social science fiction novel World Made by Hand (2008), he describes a future dependent on localized production and agriculture, with little reliance on imports. Three "World Made by Hand" sequels have followed: The Witch of Hebron (2010), A History of the Future (2015), and The Harrows of Spring (2016).[19]
Kunstler has written articles for the
In his writings and lectures, he contends that there is no other
Reception
A 2020 article at NewGeography.com described one of Kunstler's essays in
In 2005, conservative writer Bill Kauffman called Kunstler the "scourge of suburbia," and a "slashingly witty Jeremiah."[22] In a 2008 review of Kunstler's weekly audio podcast, the Columbia Journalism Review described the KunstlerCast as offering "some of the smartest, most honest urban commentary around—online or off."[15] The Albany, New York, Times Union reviewed Kunstler's book World Made by Hand, writing that, "James Howard Kunstler is fiddling his way to the apocalypse, one jig at a time." The paper described the book's scenario as "grim", with "an upside or two."[23]
Critiquing The Long Emergency, journalist
Charles Bensinger, co-founder of Renewable Energy Partners of New Mexico, describes Kunstler's views as "fashionably
Publications
Novels
- The Wampanaki Tales (1979)
- A Clown in the Moonlight (1981)
- The Life of Byron Jaynes (1983)[28]
- An Embarrassment of Riches (1985)
- Blood Solstice (1986)
- The Halloween Ball (1987)
- Bagging Bigfoot/The Hunt (1988)
- Thunder Island (1989)
- Maggie Darling: A Modern Romance (2003)
- World Made by Hand (2008)
- The Witch of Hebron (2010)
- Manhattan Gothic (2012)
- A History of the Future(2014)
- The Harrows of Spring (2016)
- A Safe and Happy Place (2017)
- The Law of the Jungle: A Tale of Loss and Woe (2018)
- The Fall of the Ancients: A Tale of Fortitude and Triumph (2018)
- A Christmas Orphan: a Tale of Pluck and Salvation (2019)
Nonfiction
- The geography of nowhere : the rise and decline of America's man-made landscapes (1993)
- Home from nowhere (1996)
- The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition (2001)
- The Long Emergency (2005)
- Too Much Magic (2012)[29][30]
- Living in the Long Emergency (2020)
Plays
- Big Slide (2010)
See also
- Georgism – Economic philosophy centred on common ownership of land
- John Michael Greer – American writer and druid
- Dmitry Orlov – American engineer and writer
- Psychology of previous investment – economic concept
- Michael Ruppert – American writer and investigative journalist
References
- ^ a b c Kunstler, James Howard. "Kunstler Memoirs: Off to College 1966". J Kunstler. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
- ^ J Kunstler. "Kunstler Memoirs: The Station 1957–63". J Kunstler. Archived from the original on April 18, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
- ISBN 0684837374.
- ^ a b "About". KUNSTLER. October 2, 1999. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
- ^ "The Party of Cruelty". Kunstler.com. March 22, 2010. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Kunstler, Jim (March 20, 2020). "Strength and Weakness". Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
- ^ Kunstler, Jim (November 15, 2019). "The Deep State's Deep State Department". Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
- ^ Kunstler, Jim (August 31, 2020). "Bill of Particulars". Retrieved September 3, 2020.
- ^ Del Mastro, Addison (November 21, 2017). "An Interview With James Howard Kunstler". The American Conservative. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ Kunstler, Jim (January 29, 2021). "The Man Who Isn't There". Retrieved January 29, 2021.
- ^ a b Grondahl, Paul (May 24, 2016). "Best-selling author Kunstler passes the online hat". Albany Times Union. Archived from the original on March 20, 2020. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
- ^ Jim Kunstler (October 13, 2021). "Chatting with Doug Casey". Kunstler.com. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
- ^ Jim Kunstler (October 11, 2021). "The Waiting Is The Hardest Part". Kunstler.com. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
- ^ Kunstler, James (June 17, 2022). "How Low Can You Go?". Kunstler. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ a b Michele Wilson (October 16, 2008). "The American Nightmare". The Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on October 18, 2008. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
- ^ Scott Carlson (October 20, 2006). "A Social Critic Warns of Upheavals to Come". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
- ^ a b "What's Up". Kunstler. Archived from the original on April 5, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ^ "Kunstler Predicts The End of Tall Buildings". [Planetizen]. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
- ^ "James Howard Kunstler: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle". Amazon. Archived from the original on February 12, 2017. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
- ^ Salam, Reihan. "Heralding The End Times". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on May 18, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
- ^ Ring, Ed. "THE WONDROUS, MAGNIFICENT CITIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY". New Geography. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
- ^ "The American Conservative -- Free Vermont". October 26, 2010. Archived from the original on October 26, 2010. Retrieved December 5, 2023.
- Albany Times UnionMarch 16, 2008, page J1 to J2.
- ^ Wise Fool Archived December 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, ChrisHayes.com, Retrieved June 22, 2011
- ^ Why I don’t agree with James Kunstler about peak oil and the "end of suburbia" Archived July 29, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, ThinkProgress, October 28, 2007
- ^ Charles Bensinger (2005). "Short Solutions to the Long Emergency". The Green Institute. Archived from the original on December 19, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2007.
- ^ David Ehrenfeld (2005). "The End is Nigh". American Scientist Online. Archived from the original on June 11, 2011. Retrieved December 27, 2007.
- ^ "Review of The Life of Byron Jaynes by James Howard Kunstler". Kirkus Reviews. May 23, 1983. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
- ^ "Review of Too Much Magic by James Howard Kunstlser". Kirkus Reviews. July 3, 2012. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
- ^ Goodell, Jeff (July 12, 2012). "James Howard Kunstler on Why Technology Won't Save Us". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 27, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
External links
- Official website
- James Howard Kunstler at TED
- Interviews with the author
- TED Talks: James Howard Kunstler dissects suburbia at TED in 2004