Most Popular Books by James Howard Kunstler

Argues that much of what surrounds Americans is depressing, ugly, and unhealthy; and traces America''s evolution from a land of village commons to a man-made landscape that ignores nature and human needs.

The author of The Long Emergency explains why technology can’t solve all our problems, and how excessive optimism can endanger our future. The Long Emergency quickly became a grassroots hit, offering a shocking vision of our post-oil future and capturing the attention of environmentalists and business leaders alike. As discussion about our dependence on fossil fuels and our dysfunctional financial and government institutions continues, the author returns with Too Much Magic—evaluating what has changed and what has not, and what direction we need to take in this post-financial-crisis world. “Too much magic” is what James Howard Kunstler sees in the bright utopian visions of the future dreamed up by optimistic souls who believe technology will solve all our problems. Their visions remind him of the flying cars and robot maids that were the dominant images of the future in the 1950s. Kunstler’s image of the future is much more sober. With vision, clarity of thought, and a pragmatic worldview, Kunstler argues that the time for magical thinking and hoping for miracles is over—and the time to begin preparing for the long emergency has begun. “A sharp critic of energy-sucking, big-box landscapes.” —Winnipeg Free Press

In his landmark book The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler visited the "tragic sprawlscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" America had become and declared that the deteriorating environment was not merely a symptom of a troubled culture, but one of the primary causes of our discontent. In Home from Nowhere Kunstler not only shows that the original American Dream -- the desire for peaceful, pleasant places in which to work and live -- still has a strong hold on our imaginations, but also offers innovative, eminently practical ways to make that dream a reality. Citing examples from around the country, he calls for the restoration of traditional architecture, the introduction of enduring design principles in urban planning, and the development of public spaces that acknowledge our need to interact comfortable with one another.

She''s the goddess of hearth and home, America''s millionaire media maven of domesticity, Connecticut''s most dazzling hostess, and everything in her world is perfect-except that Maggie Darling''s picture-book life has suddenly gone off the rails. Amid the extravagant trappings of a Christmas Eve bash, she spies her swinish stockbroker husband slipping out of a powder room moments after his creamy young colleague. Matrimonial meltdown launches Maggie on a year of romance and misadventure, starting with an ill-fated fling with British rock star-turned-movie-actor Frederick Swann. Back home, a sniper is loose on the Merritt Parkway and a gang known as the Businessman''s Lunch Posse is terrorizing patrons of Manhattan''s four-star restaurants. Meanwhile, Maggie''s son Hooper drops out of college and falls into the company of the sinister gangsta-rap group Chill Az Def. As calamity piles on catastrophe, can Maggie Darling brilliantly resolve the collapse of civilization as we wish we knew it?

Forget the speculation of pundits and media personalities. For anyone asking "Now what?" the answer is out there. You just have to know where to look. In his 2005 book, The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler described the global predicaments that would pitch the USA into political and economic turmoil in the 21st century—the end of affordable oil, climate irregularities, and flagging economic growth, to name a few. Now, he returns with a book that takes an up-close-and-personal approach to how real people are living now—surviving The Long Emergency as it happens. Through his popular blog, Clusterf*ck Nation, Kunstler has had the opportunity to connect with people from across the country. They''ve shared their stories with him—sometimes over years of correspondence—and in Living in the Long Emergency: Global Crisis, the Failure of the Futurists, and the Early Adapters Who Are Showing Us the Way Forward, he shares them with us, offering an eye-opening and unprecedented look at what''s really going on "out there" in the US—and beyond. Kunstler also delves deep into his past predictions, comparing and contrastingt hem with the way things have unfolded with unflinching honesty. Further, he turns an eye to what''s ahead, laying out the strategies that will help all of us as we navigate this new world. With personal accounts from a Vermont baker, homesteaders, a building contractor in the Baltimore ghetto, a white nationalist, and many more, Living in the Long Emergency is a unique and timely exploration of how the lives of everyday Americans are being transformed, for better and for worse, and what these stories tell us both about the future and about human perseverance.

The World Made by Hand postapocalyptic saga concludes with this “suspenseful tale spiked with suffering and violence, rough justice and love” (Booklist). The small town of Union Grove has adapted, struggled, and thrived in the new age of civilization. But early spring is full of hardships: Fresh food is scarce and the winter stores are almost gone. Despite the time of privation, young explorer Daniel Earle resurrects the town newspaper, and the town trustees ask him to help revive the Hudson River trade route. But even as the townsfolk strive forward, a group of visitors remind them that nothing is easy in the new world. They proclaim themselves as representatives of the Berkshire People’s Republic, spouting high-minded, near-fanatical rhetoric of social justice and absolute equality—all while demanding tribute from the citizens under slyly veiled threats. Now, the townspeople of Union Grove will have to decide just how far they are willing to go to keep the freedom and peace for which they have fought so hard . . . With this glimpse into a future that could become reality all too soon, James Howard Kunstler delivers “a slyly folksy, caustically hilarious, unabashedly proselytizing, and affecting finale in a keenly provocative saga.” (Booklist).

In this “richly imagined” dystopian vision, mankind must find a way to survive as modern civilization slowly comes apart (O, The Oprah Magazine). When Earth ran dry of oil, the age of the automobile came to an end; electricity flickered out. With deprivation came desperation—and desperation drove humanity backward to a state of existence few could have imagined. In the tiny hamlet of Union Grove, New York, every day is a struggle. For Mayor Robert Earle, it is a battle to keep the citizens united. As the bonds of civilization are torn apart by war, famine, and violence, there are some who aim to carve out a new society: one in which might makes right—a world of tyranny, subjugation, and death. A world Earle must fight against . . . In his shocking nonfiction work, The Long Emergency, social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored the reality of what would happen if the engines stopped running. In World Made by Hand, he offers a stark glimpse of that future in a work of speculative fiction that stands as “an impassioned and invigorating tale whose ultimate message is one of hope, not despair” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Brilliant.” —Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune “It frightens without being ridiculously nightmarish, it cautions without being too judgmental, and it offers glimmers of hope we don’t have to read between the lines to comprehend.” —Baltimore City Paper

This title takes an in-depth look at the history, development and state of architectural and societal success of cities, including London, Rome, Berlin, Paris and Mexico City.

A collection of edited transcripts of interviews of author/commentator James Howard Kunstler conducted by journalist Duncan Crary for the podcast KunstlerCast.

Humanity hangs on after the fall of civilization in this “wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page-turner” (Booklist, starred review). After the collapse of the old world—the pandemics, the environmental disasters, the end of oil, the ensuing chaos—people are pursuing a simpler and sometimes happier existence. In Union Grove, New York, the townspeople are preparing for Christmas . . . the perfect time for a long-lost member of the community to return. Robert Earle’s son, Daniel, has come home after two years exploring what is left of the United States. He brings news of three new nations arisen from what was once America—and the dangers and possibilities they may hold. Meanwhile, a horrific murder threatens to turn the community of Union Grove against itself—and what is supposed to be a time of peace and togetherness is overtaken by suspicion and fear. In this vividly depicted look at a world that may be on our own horizon, “Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing” in a gripping story of hope, hate, and humanity’s last chance at survival (Booklist).

The dystopian epic of World Made by Hand continues in a novel hailed as "Larry McMurty''s Lonesome Dove, set in the dystopian world of The Road" ( New York Journal of Books). A new age has begun on Earth. Oil is no longer a resource. Some parts of America are nuclear wastelands. Civilization has devolved into a constant struggle for food, water, and shelter. In the tiny hamlet of Union Grove, New York, the US government is little more than a rumor. Wars are being fought over dwindling resources and illness has a constant presence. Bandits roam the countryside, preying on the weak and a sinister cult threatens the town''s fragile stability. It is up to every citizen of Union Grove to decide what they are willing to fight for, kill for, and die for . . . This is a tale of humanity at its shining best and brutal worst woven together in a "suspenseful, darkly amusing story with touches of the fantastic in the mode of Washington Irving" ( Booklist). "Kunstler''s postapocalyptic world is neither a merciless nightmare nor a starry-eyed return to some pastoral faux utopia; it''s a hard existence dotted with adventure, revenge, mysticism, and those same human emotions that existed before the power went out." — Publishers Weekly

From WATER STREET PRESS Two days before Christmas, eons ago in 1962, eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway overhears his parents having an argument in their New York City apartment. Could it be, as his mother declares sarcastically, that he was "an orphan found on the doorstep in a willow basket?" And are these people who claim to be his mother and father actually imposters? The heartbreaking news propels Jeff into a strange adventure on the verge of the Great Holiday. He sets off for Grand Central Station to find the town of Drakesburg, Vermont, inspired by an episode of his favorite TV show, The Twilight Zone-the show that happened to be on when his parents started their quarrel. In Drakesburg, he imagines, with its quaint turn-of-the-century charm and its people full of tender-hearted goodness, he can start life over as an orphan, maybe even find a sympathetic family to adopt him if he promises to milk the cow and take out the garbage. Jeff rides the Holiday Special train north through the night to Vermont, with his baseball mitt and some fresh underwear in his school briefcase, only to discover that the sparkly New England town of television land is not quite the paradise he imagined. The locals in the town diner have never seen anything quite like him, a boy on the run from parents he says were phonies. Jeff makes the rounds of the town''s best-looking houses desperately seeking a family that might be interested in adopting an orphan. The results are not quite what he expected. But as twilight settles over the snowy streets on Christmas Eve, fate lands him in the perfect situation, a family with a boy his own age, who even has his own horse! The only complication is that the father is the town sheriff.... James Howard Kunstler''s charming, elegiac tale returns us to a time when we all believed we would shape life on our own terms-and reminds us that happiness is still something worth taking a few risks to achieve.

Relates the true story of Davy Crockett, one of the Old West''s outstanding hunters, frontiersmen, and legislators.

A picaresque novel of the American West in 1803. An historical comedy about two bumbling botanists sent into the southern wilderness by Thomas Jefferson to look for something that isn''t there. A novel in the spirit of Lewis and Clark (who make cameo appearences). Replete with wild Indians, river pirates, the kidnapped son of King Louis XVI, the lost colony of Roanoke, and much more. A non-stop romp full of life and humor and the sensibility of early America.

Recounts the story of the man who traveled west planting apple seeds to make the country a better place to live.

She was an angel in buckskin on a big spotted horse. With two six guns blazin'', Annie Oakley was the star of Buffalo Bill Cody''s famous Wild West Show for almost 20 years. Your entire family will enjoy this spirited tale of a talented frontier woman whose sharp-shooting exploits brought her international fame.

Aladdin outwits an evil magician who first tries to trick him into handing over an old lamp with a genie inside and later steals Aladdin''s wife and possessions.

James Howard Kunstler (born October 19, 1948) is an American author, social critic, public speaker, artist, and blogger. James created these oil paintings of the landscape around Washington and Saratoga counties of New York. All were painted sur le motif. ufeffufeffJames Howard Kunstler is best known for his books The Geography of Nowhere (1994), a history of American Suburbia and urban development, The Long Emergency (2005), and Too Much Magic (2012). In The Long Emergency, he imagines peak oil and oil depletion resulting at the end of industrialized society, forcing Americans to live in smaller-scale, localized, agrarian (or semi-agrarian) communities. He branches into a speculative fiction depiction of this future world in his book World Made by Hand.

This fifth installment of the Jeff Greenaway novella series finds our eleven-year-old hero shipped off from Manhattan for the summer (as usual) to Camp Timahoe, near the town of Lost Indian, Vermont, in the summer of 1963. All seems normal at first with Ahab the Arab playing all over the radio. But the camp seems to be mysteriously going to pieces. One by one, the counselors have disappeared until none are left... and the boys are on their own....

"I started my blog, Clusterfuck Nation, almost twenty years ago to chronicle the week-by-week process of our collapsing civilization¿ What I had not anticipated in The Long Emergency was how badly the process of collapse would disorder the minds of the whole American population and, with that, the consensus about reality." -James Howard Kunstler, CrazyLandPraise for Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology and the Fate of the Nation:"Kunstler brilliantly shows us what a pickle we''re in and how inept we are at dealing with it." -Publishers WeeklyPraise for The Long Emergency:"What sets The Long Emergency apart¿ is its comprehensive sweep, its powerful integration of science and technology, economics and ¿finance, international politics, and social change¿ Kunstler is such a compelling and sometimes eloquent writer that it is hard to put this book down." -American ScientistPraise for the four-book World Made by Hand Series:"¿ attention-grabbing and provocative, but also lyrical, tender, and comic-a vision of a future of America that is becoming more and more convincing and perhaps even desirable with each passing day." - Goodreads on A History of the Future"Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page-turner¿" - Booklist on A History of the Future"Richly imagined¿ reminded me of Larry McMurtry''s Lonesome Do¿e, set in the dystopian world of The Road." - New York Journal of Books on The Witch of Hebron"¿ an impassioned and invigorating tale whose ultimate message is one of hope, not despair." -The San Francisco Chronicle on World Made By Hand"The thrilling conclusion to Kunstler''s beloved series, ¿The Harrows of Spring is a powerful, moving tale of insurrection, survival, and what it means to be human." - Goodreads on ¿The Harrows of Spring

From WATER STREET PRESS President Kennedy is entertaining some now-forgotten head-of-state in the White House and eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway and his best friend Bobby Schindler are in New York City entertaining themselves-tossing water balloons, pennies and one Spanish melon off the fifteenth-floor terrace of the Schindler''s apartment building over looking Fifth Avenue. Bobby''s cat, Mehetabel, wanders out to sun herself and-inspired by the blustery day-the boys decide to fashion a parachute of Mrs. Schindler''s pink damask tablecloth and send Mehetabel for a twelve-foot sail from the balcony of the water tower to the terrace. The phlegmatic Mehetabel cooperates like a flight cadet as they fit her with the parachute, but the wind is unpredictable and the experiment goes awry. Mehetabel takes flight over Central Park with the boys-along with a Park Avenue matron, a couple of winos, a retired veterinarian and the New York City Fire Department-in hot pursuit. James Howard Kunstler''s charming tale takes us back to an age when NYC was a natural playground for two little boys on a breezy afternoon, a native would lend you a dime to make a phone call, and cats could fly. The Flight of Mehetabel is the third in Mr. Kunstler''s series of children''s books for adults. Collect all of his enchanting Jeff Greenaway tales at www.waterstreetpressbooks.com.

From WATER STREET PRESS A children''s story for grown-ups. ..".amongst their own kind, children are the world''s most thoroughgoing skeptics." But not eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway. When his parents suddenly come into possession of hard-to-get tickets to the smash musical How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, but can''t find a babysitter, Jeff ventures out in the Manhattan night to meet his hero, Count Zackuloff, the mad, moldy host of Channel 5''s Midnight Mystery Theater, a horror movie program. Amazingly, the Count takes Jeff along on a publicity stunt in costume to the Horn and Hardart Automat, drawing crowds of curious fans. Next, the Count takes Jeff to a double feature horror matinee at the 58th Street Translux. An unusual friendship develops between the boy and the ghoul. Through it all, Jeff nutures dreams of becoming the Count''s on-screen sidekick. But the Count has his own dreams-and they do not include a lifetime of introducing old horror movies on a third-rate New York TV station. James Howard Kunstler''s charming tale takes us back to an age when New York City was a natural playground for a little boy and his own, personal vampire hero-a time when it seemed possible that all of our dreams could come true.

A children''s book for grown-ups. Eleven-year-old Jeff Greenaway, budding Cold War comedian, connoisseur of Sabrett hot dogs, and scholar of horror movies, has a new obsession: classmate Wendy Waldbaum. So far, except for one wildly ill-timed declaration of love, Jeff has adored her from afar-and fervently believes that the only thing standing in the way of winning Wendy''s heart is his tall, rich, and dumb rival, classmate Lee Talbot. The idea that Wendy would want anything to do with a stuck-up jerk like Talbot infuriates Jeff. And when he runs into Wendy weeping in the Mummy''s Tomb at the Met, and decides the loathsome Talbot is responsible for her tears, Jeff moved to revenge. And what an act of vengeance! Fifteen seconds of payback that would live in Jeff''s memory as an eternity. Only belatedly, after finding out his heroics are going to result in his being sent away to a private boarding school, where life is hard, does Jeff find out the real reason for Wendy''s sadness. James Howard Kunstler''s charming tale takes us back to an age when just holding hands with one''s beloved was cause for ecstasy, before any of our hearts were broken-and reminds us that maybe, just maybe, love still really does conquer all.

What happens when four guys confront the enormity of being thirty? If it’s Sandy Stern, he worries about the fact that he’s a down-and-out artist about to lose both his apartment and his girl. If it’s Joel Harlowe, a materialistic drug dealer, his charmed life in the fast lane is leading to a dead end. If it’s Edmund Black, he’s crushed by the weight of the past, seeking a precarious refuge in madness. And if it’s George Wells, he’s a waiter with a unfinished Ph.D., trying to cope with the impending death of his once powerful politician father. So when Joel Harlowe plans the biggest, most outrageous Halloween party ever to hit Excelsior Springs, New York, all hell breaks loose. A series of absurd and tragic events reveals each of these men’s most secret dreams, hopes and fears, and transforms his life in this once elegant upstate town. Four friend emerge from the illusions of youth to discover who ther really are in this unforgettable chronicle of life in a typical American town, 80s style James Howard Kunstler, author of five critically acclaimed novels, has created a masterfully drawn tragi-comic universe, poignant and devastating

Manhattan Gothic - a Tale of Friendship and Tribulation, is fourth in the Jeff Greenaway series of novellas about an eleven-year-old boy growing up in Manhattan in the 1960s. There was a time in our history when the imaginations of boys were seized by creepy doings of the un-dead in Transylvania, that mythical realm of vampires, blood beasts, werewolves, monsters hatched in laboratories, the sundry misbegotten, and the unfortunate victims of atomic radiation. Thus, Jeff Greenaway, eleven years old, develops an obsession with Count Zackuloff, host of the Channel 9 Friday Night horror movie. One October evening in the long-ago nineteen sixties, with his parents at a hit Broadway Show, and in hopes of meeting his hero, Jeff sneaks out of their Manhattan apartment and ventures down to the Channel 9 studios, where, to his astonishment, the "Great Ghoul" himself actually steps out of the elevator in the lobby... and thus begins the boy''s fateful journey into the outer precincts of show biz, where the real monsters are the people who run the TV station....