''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 Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

, civil planning, and the automobile on

American society The society of the United States is based on Western culture, and has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, ...

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."

References

The 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 Reports'', the journal ...

'', Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1999), pp. 186–212, 1993 non-fiction books Books about cultural geography Books about urbanism Simon & Schuster books {{architecture-book-stub