The Geography of Nowhere is a thirteen-chapter book explaining how and why America is ugly, decrepit and doomed due to modernism. Author James Kunstler is cynical about almost all of modern America and goes on to say; “Eighty percent of everything ever built in America has been built in the last fifty …show more content…
He fails to address the realities of population growth, industry growth and that maybe people want large homes with larger plots of land. The thought that all of our society's ills can be cured by regaining the American town of the 1950s and 60’s is a gross overgeneralization. While realizing, the book is about city planning; I can't help but think there are other elements involved that no matter how close houses and businesses are together will still see a decline in society due to the realities of constant changes in the world. It’s like the person that still drives a beat up twenty-year-old vehicle because they don’t trust new cars and new technology.
Randal O’Toole’s The Best-Laid Plans is an in debt look into how regulation and planning, despite best intentions overlooks the realities of our ever-changing world. O’Toole points out that government planning departments are making 20, 30 and even 50 year plans that they are abandoning due to changes in cities. Additionally, we read how regulations continue to drive up the cost of housing and