HACKER SAFE certified sites prevent over 99.9% of hacker crime.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE...
The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
by James Howard Kunstler
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxins, and Human Health
High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxins, and Human Health
by Elizabeth Grossman
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape
The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-made Landscape
by James Howard Kunstler
RELATED AISLES

Alafair Burke Read the INK Q&A with Alafair Burke and save 30% on Angel's Tip.

Angel's Tip $16.76
Hardcover Add to Cart



 
Ships free on qualified orders.
$24.00
HARDCOVER, NEW
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 BeavertonLiterature- A to Z
1 BeavertonFeatured Titles- General
4 BeavertonEnvironmental Studies- Featured Titles
5 BurnsideFeatured Titles- Literature
3 BurnsideLiterature- A to Z
1 HawthorneLiterature- A to Z
25 Local Warehouse Literature- A to Z
25 Remote Warehouse Literature- A to Z
Hide store locations


World Made by Hand
by James Howard Kunstler

World Made by Hand Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In his previous book, celebrated social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored how the age of globalization and mankind's explosive progress over the last two hundred years was based on the availability of cheap fossil fuels. He observed that the terminal decline of oil production, combined with the perils of climate change, had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business.

Offering a shocking vision for the coming trauma of our post-oil future, The Long Emergency was a tremendous success and a best seller, selling over 100,000 copies. With World Made by Hand, an astonishing work of speculative fiction, Kunstler makes an imaginative leap into the future, a few decades hence, and shows us what life may be like following the long emergency. For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be. After the catastrophes converged — the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics, and resource wars — they are doing whatever they can to get by. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy, and the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren't sure. As the heat of summer intensifies our narrator, Robert Earle, former marketing executive turned carpenter, and his fellow residents of Union Grove struggle with the new way of life. Their challenges play out in a dazzling, fully realized world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish.

Driven by realistic conflicts and peopled with relatable, engaging characters, World Made by Hand is a novel full of love and loss, violence and power, sex and drugs, depression and desperation, but also plenty of hope. This is an extraordinary book, sure to appeal to Kunstler's legion of fans as well as new readers attracted by the accomplished storytelling of an experienced writer.

Review:

"Kunstler's name is mostly associated with nonfiction works like The Long Emergency, a bleak prediction of what will happen when oil production no longer meets demand, and the antisuburbia polemic The Geography of Nowhere. In this novel, his 10th, he visits a future posited on his signature idea: when the oil wells start to run dry, the world economy will collapse and society as we know it will cease. Robert Earle has lost his job (he was a software executive) and family in the chaos following the breakdown. Elected mayor of Union Grove, N.Y., in the wake of a town crisis, Earle must rebuild civil society out of squabbling factions, including a cultish community of newcomers, an established group of Congregationalists and a plantation kept by the wealthy Stephen Bullock. Re-establishing basic infrastructure is a big enough challenge, but major tension comes from a crew of neighboring rednecks led by warlord Wayne Karp. Kunstler is most engaged when discussing the fate of the status quo and in divulging the particulars of daily life. Kunstler's world is convincing if didactic: Union Grove exists solely to illustrate Kunstler's doomsday vision. Readers willing to go for the ride will see a frightening and bleak future." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"This future is not completely dire, but it's grim enough to make us seriously consider how we would get by in a world made by hand. Highly recommended." Library Journal

Review:

"Readers may be left uneasy — not so much by Kunstler's just censure of the 'generation that screwed up the world' as his delight in reeducating the fallen." Los Angeles Times

Review:

"[M]ost readers will admit that Earle's world, the world made by hand, after all the terror bombs and bad actors and missing luxuries are dealt with, sounds at least as unpredictably pleasing as our own." Chicago Tribune

Synopsis:

In the best-seller The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler explored how the terminal decline of oil production had the potential to put industrial civilization out of business. With World Made By Hand Kunstler makes an imaginative leap into the future, a few decades hence, and shows us what life may be like after these coming catastrophes—the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics, and resource wars—converge. For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be.  Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, World Made by Hand takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
tkozlo, April 22, 2008 (view all comments by tkozlo)
The looming spectre of an economic/energy crash, with the removal of the machine world that now slaves for humanity, is turned into an engaging and edifying tale of a small community learning to do for themselves even as they do without the dimly recalled bulging shelves of extinct big-box stores. Kunstler depicts the slow quiet place of life without motor vehicles, the new prominence of nature's details in people's attention, the evolving relationships as people barter and come to each other's aid. The plot creates enough suspense and original characters to keep the reader turning pages steadily.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
ccrose, April 21, 2008 (view all comments by ccrose)
To balance out the first comment I would like to add that I haven't yet read the book (going to JHK's Beaverton book signing tonight) but to let newbie readers know that JHK is a heck of an entertaining guy.

Point being, you get much more than doom n gloom -- (he says people like to "twang" on him for that) -- you get laughs, things to think about, and maybe hopefulness, if you buy his prediction that the 21st will be the century of deindustrialization, relocatlization, and unavoidable systemic reconnection with nature and community.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
maverick17761784, December 19, 2007 (view all comments by maverick17761784)
Neil Lori of 1776 Eagle Rock Ave. West Orange, New Jersey is a member of Patriots For Common Sense.

Neil Lori says: James Howard Kunstler's World Made by Hand is going to be an attention grabber. Wake up Americans, before it is too late. We need trains {for people and freight} tracks and trolleys, soil conservation massive tree and food planting + clean water for fish, drinking and farming.

Neil Lori and the rest of the Patriots For Common Sense wish James Howard Kunstler much success with World Made by Hand and hope he wakes a lot of people up ASAP. Check out his weekly website www.kunstler.com Note: if you did not read the Long Emergency then I suggest you read it. I can be reached at maverick17761784@yahoo.com
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(26 of 34 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 3 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780871139788
Author:
Kunstler, James Howard
Publisher:
Atlantic Monthly Press
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Petroleum industry and trade
Subject:
Environmentalism
Publication Date:
February 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
317
Dimensions:
8.57x5.75x1.35 in. 1.08 lbs.
back to top