American author and critic

James Howard Kunstler

James Howard Kunstler is an American writer, social critic, public speaker, and blogger known for his analysis of urban development, suburbanization, and energy issues. Born in New York City to Jewish parents, he gained prominence through his non-fiction works critiquing American suburban development and predicting societal changes based on resource constraints. His most influential books include The Geography of Nowhere (1993) and Home from Nowhere (1996), a critical examination of American suburbia and urban planning, The Long Emergency (2005) and Too Much Magic (2012), which explore the potential consequences of peak oil and energy depletion on modern civilization and humanity's over-reliance on technology to solve problems. Kunstler's work has become standard reading in architecture and urban planning courses, and he has been a prominent spokesperson for the New Urbanism movement.

Born

1948

October 19

Died

Living

Era

1940s

Country

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About

James, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1948 Born

Also on October 19

What else happened on this day, through history

-202 Second Punic War: At the Battle of Zama, Roman legions under Scipio Africanus defeat Hannibal Barca, leader of the army defending Carthage.[citation needed]
439 The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, take Carthage in North Africa.
1386 The Universität Heidelberg holds its first lecture, making it the oldest German university.
1453 Hundred Years' War: Three months after the Battle of Castillon, England loses its last possessions in southern France.

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The world in 1948

When James arrived

april 1 Cold War: Communist forces respond to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark by attempting to force the western powers to withdraw from Berlin.
april 1 Faroe Islands gain autonomy from Denmark.
april 13 In an ambush, 78 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students from Hadassah Hospital, and a British soldier, are massacred by Arabs in Sheikh Jarrah. This event came to be known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.
april 16 The Organization of European Economic Co-operation is formed.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on October 19

Ayuo Takahashi 1960– Japanese-American singer-songwriter Bill Ponsford 1900– Australian cricketer and baseball player (died 1991) Evander Holyfield 1962– American boxer and actor Grover Norquist 1956– American activist, founded Americans for Tax Reform Jack Anderson 1922–2005 American journalist and author (born 1922) James Bevel 1936–2008 American minister and activist (born 1936) Jean Dausset 1916–2009 French-Spanish immunologist and academic; awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic basis of immunological reaction (born 1916) John Woolman 1720–1772 American-English preacher, journalist, and activist (died 1772) LaWanda Page 1920–2002 American actress (died 2002)

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1948

Art Spiegelman 1948– Swedish-American cartoonist and critic Buck Martinez 1948– American baseball player and manager Carl Weathers 1948–2024 American football player and actor (born 1948) Carlos Salinas de Gortari 1948– Mexican economist and politician, 53rd President of Mexico Christopher Guest 1948– British-American actor and director Claude Jade 1948–2006 French actress (born 1948) Cliff Thorburn 1948– Canadian snooker player Davíð Oddsson 1948– Icelandic politician, 21st Prime Minister of Iceland (died 2026) Dayle Haddon 1948– Canadian model and actress (died 2024)

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James's birthday October 19 James's zodiac Libra When James arrived 1948