Non-Fiction Books

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."

Describes the life of the eccentric man who helped nineteenth-century American settlers, planting apples every place he stopped.

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. Illustrated by Fred Warter. Ages 5 and up. Part of the award-winning Rabbit Ears series, "American Heroes & Legends." Audio and video versions using the same text and illustrations are narrated by actor Keith Carradine with original music by Los Lobos. CINE Golden Eagle Award; National Educational Film & Video Festival Silver Apple. DVD and digital downloads are available at Amazon Disc on Demand and Amazon Instant Video. The audiobook is available at Audible.com. Hard cover library bound editions of the book are available at www.rabbitears.com. Rabbit Ears stories open a door to the world of great literature. These are timeless and beloved stories that have delighted generations, and continue to offer powerful lessons for today's audiences. Readers of all ages will explore faraway lands and cultures through folktales. You will walk alongside heroes of long ago legends. And discover master storytellers such as Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, and Rudyard Kipling. Original illustrations in full color add another dimension to each story, and the texts will foster a love of reading. Get the entire Rabbit Ears library!

James Howard Kunstler describes various episodes of Davy Crockett's life, from his boyhood confrontation with a hungry bear to his campaign for Congress to his heroic role at the battle of the Alamo. This lively tale shows how an early frontiersman became a true American legend. Full color.

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.

In the highly acclaimed The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler declared suburbia "a tragic landscape" and fueled a fierce debate over how we will live in twenty-first-century America. Here, Kunstler turns his discerning eye to urban life in America and beyond in dazzling excursions to classical Rome, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, Louis-Napoleon's Paris, the "gigantic hairball" that is contemporary Atlanta, the ludicrous spectacle of Las Vegas, and more. Seeking to discover what is constant and enduring in cities at their greatest, Kunstler explores how America got lost in suburban wilderness and locates pathways that might lead to civic revival. His authoritative tour is both a concise history of cities and a stunning critique of how they can aid or hinder social and civil progress. By turns dramatic and comic, The City in Mind is an exceptional glimpse into the urban condition.

A controversial hit that sparked debate among businessmen, environmentalists, and bloggers, The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler is an eye-opening look at the unprecedented challenges we face in the years ahead, as oil runs out and the global systems built on it are forced to change radically.

In this transcript from the KunstlerCast podcast, James Howard Kunstler speaks to Richard Heinberg about his newest book, "The End of Growth." Topics of discussion include: peak oil, financial dysfunction, political convulsions, generational conflict, the fate of suburbia, cheerful pessimism, and the redemptive powers of music (8,000 words).

James Howard Kunstler’s critically acclaimed and best-selling The Long Emergency , originally published in 2005, quickly became a grassroots hit, going into nine printings in hardcover. Kunstler’s shocking vision of our post-oil future caught the attention of environmentalists and business leaders alike, and stimulated widespread discussion about our dependence on fossil fuels and our dysfunctional financial and government institutions. Kunstler has since been profiled in The New Yorker and invited to speak at TED. In Too Much Magic , Kunstler evaluates what has changed in the last seven years and shows us that, in a post-financial-crisis world, his ideas are more relevant than ever. “Too Much Magic” is what Kunstler sees in the bright visions of a future world 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.

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.