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The Witch Of Hebron
''The Witch of Hebron'' is a dystopian novel by American writer James Howard Kunstler, published in 2010. It is a sequel to his 2008 novel ''World Made by Hand''. Set in the fictional town of Union Grove, New York, the novel follows many of the same cast of characters from the previous novel as they navigate a world stripped of its modern comforts, ravaged by terrorism, epidemics, and the economic upheaval of peak oil. Kunstler explores themes of local and sustainable living. In interviews, Kunstler describes his imaginary world as an "enlightened nineteenth century." The overarching premise, however, is a stark look into the future at the dire consequences of the poor American system of urban planning, and the complete lack of workability the contemporary suburban arrangement possesses without the continuous input of inexpensive and abundant energy to maintain its infrastructure. This has been the core theme of Kunstler's non-fiction works, including ''The Geography of Nowhere'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ''Too Much Magic'' (2012). In ''The Long Emergency'' he imagines peak oil and oil depletion resulting in the end of industrialized society, forcing Americans to live in smaller-scale, localized, agrarian (or semi-agrarian) communities. In ''World Made by Hand'' he branches into a speculative fiction depiction of this future world. Background Kunstler was born in New York City to Jewish parents, who divorced when he was eight. His family then moved to the suburbs on Long Island. His biological father was a middleman in the diamond trade. Kunstler spent most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather, a publicist for Broadway shows. While spending summers at a boys' camp in New Hampshire, he became acquainted w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Utopian And Dystopian Fiction
Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers. Dystopian fiction offers the opposite: the portrayal of a setting that completely disagrees with the author's ethos. Some novels combine both genres, often as a metaphor for the different directions humility can take depending on its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other types of speculative fiction. More than 400 utopian works in the English language were published prior to the year 1900, with more than a thousand others appearing during the 20th century. This increase is partially associated with the rise in popularity of genre fiction, science fiction and young adult fiction more generally, but also larger scale social change that broug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Made By Hand
''World Made by Hand'' is a dystopian and social science fiction novel by American author James Howard Kunstler, published in 2008. Set in the fictional town of Union Grove, New York, the novel follows a cast of characters as they navigate a world stripped of its modern comforts, ravaged by terrorism, epidemics, and the economic upheaval of peak oil, all of which are exacerbated by global warming. ''World Made by Hand'' is followed by three sequels in the series, ''The Witch of Hebron'' (2010), '' A History of the Future'' (2014) and ''The Harrows Of Spring'' (2016). Synopsis Narrated by Robert Earle, a local carpenter who has lost his wife and son, the novel focuses on four separate "cultures" that represent the directions society could go after a breakdown of modern social norms. The citizens of Union Grove are living on the tail end of a national catastrophe, with their community slowly falling apart from neglect and natural decay. Within their community, a separate group of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A History Of The Future (Kunstler Novel)
''A History of the Future'' is the third installment in American author and social critic James Howard Kunstler's '' A World Made by Hand'' series. As Christmas Day approaches, a double murder challenges an improvised justice system, and a young man returns after a two-year journey with his own story to tell. It is the third book in a novel series that includes ''The Witch of Hebron'' (2010) and ''The Harrows of Spring ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...'' (2016). References 2014 American novels Dystopian novels Novels set in New York (state) Atlantic Monthly Press books {{2010s-ah-novel-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peak Oil
Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; while global petroleum reserves are finite, the limiting factor is not whether the oil exists but whether it can be extracted economically at a given price. A secular decline in oil extraction could be caused both by depletion of accessible reserves and by reductions in demand that reduce the price relative to the cost of extraction, as might be induced to reduce carbon emissions. Numerous predictions of the timing of peak oil have been made over the past century before being falsified by subsequent growth in the rate of petroleum extraction.David White, "The unmined supply of petroleum in the United States," ''Transactions of the Society of Automotive Engineers'', 1919, v.14, part 1, p.227.Daniel Yergin“There will be oil,”Wall Street Jou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Geography Of Nowhere
''The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape'' is a book written in 1993 by James Howard Kunstler exploring the effects of suburban sprawl, civil planning, and the automobile on American society and is an attempt to discover how and why suburbia has ceased to be a credible human habitat, and what society might do about it. 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." ReferencesThe Effects of Metropolitan Economic Segregation on Local Civic Participation J. Eric Oliver, ''American Journal of Political Science The ''American Journal of Political Science'' is a journal published by the Midwest Political Science Association. It was formerly known as the ''Midwest Journal of Political Science''. According to the ''Journal Citation R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Long Emergency
''The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century'' is a book by James Howard Kunstler (Grove/Atlantic Inc., Grove/Atlantic, 2005) exploring the consequences of a world peak oil, oil production peak, coinciding with the forces of climate change, resurgent diseases, water scarcity, global economic instability and warfare to cause major trouble for future generations. The book's principal theme explores the effects of a peak in oil extraction on American society as well as the rest of the world. In both this book and in his other writings, Kunstler argues that Implications of peak oil, the economic upheavals caused by peak oil will force Americans to live in more localized, self-sufficient communities. It was followed by two other books, ''Too Much Magic'' (2012) and ''Living in the Long Emergency'' (2020). Synopsis Kunstler's premise is that "cheap, plentiful" and easy-to-find petroleum, oil is the foundation of industrial society and the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A History Of The Future (novel)
''A History of the Future'' is the third installment in American author and social critic James Howard Kunstler's '' A World Made by Hand'' series. As Christmas Day approaches, a double murder challenges an improvised justice system, and a young man returns after a two-year journey with his own story to tell. It is the third book in a novel series that includes ''The Witch of Hebron'' (2010) and ''The Harrows of Spring ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...'' (2016). References 2014 American novels Dystopian novels Novels set in New York (state) Atlantic Monthly Press books {{2010s-ah-novel-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2010 American Novels
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0. The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dystopian Novels
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). or simply anti-utopia) is a speculated community or society that is undesirable or frightening. It is often treated as an Opposite (semantics), antonym of ''utopia'', a term that was coined by Sir Thomas More and figures as the title of his best known work, published in 1516, which created a blueprint for an ideal society with minimal crime, violence and poverty. The relationship between utopia and dystopia is in actuality not one simple opposition, as many utopian elements and components are found in dystopias as well, and ''vice versa''. Dystopias are often characterized by rampant fear or distress , tyrannical governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society. Distinct the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novels Set In New York (state)
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
