Long Emergency - Softcover

James Howard Kunstler

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843544547 ISBN 13: 9781843544548

Publisher: Atlantic Books, 2006

Synopsis

The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind. But the age of oil, that fuelled this expansion, is coming rapidly to an end. The depletion of fossil fuels is about to transform life as we know it, and do so much sooner than we think. In "The Long Emergency", the distinguished commentator and analyst James Howard Kunstler explains what to expect after we pass the tipping point of peak oil production, and sets out to prepare us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale.

About this title

About the Author:

James Howard Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He is the author of two non-fiction books, The Geography of Nowhere and Home From Nowhere, and nine novels. He has been a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine and Op-Ed page, where he has written on environmental and economic issues.

Review:

It used to be that only environmentalists and paranoids warned about the world running out of oil and the future it could bring: crashing economies, resource wars, social breakdown, agony at the pump. Not anymore. . . . America’s dependence on oil is too pervasive to undo quickly, [Kunstler] warns. . . . In the meantime, we’ll have our hands full dealing with . . . the soaring temperatures, rising sea levels and mega-droughts brought by global climate change. Not long ago, a Jeremiah like Kunstler would have been dismissed as a kook. . . . As brilliant as it is baleful . . . and we disregard it at our peril.” The Washington Post

This is a frightening and important book.” Time Out Chicago

If you give a damn, you should read this book.” Colin Tudge, The Independent

What sets The Long Emergency apart is its comprehensive sweep its powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change, along with a fascinating attempt to peer into a chaotic future. Kunstler is such a compelling and sometimes eloquent writer that the book is hard to put down.” American Scientist

[A] popular blueprint for surviving the end of oil.” Paul Greenberg, The New York Times Book Review

Funny, irreverent, and blunt.” The Globe and Mail

An especial strength of this book is its break with some of the more pernicious strands in the contemporary left, specifically the left’s kneejerk rejection of America acting militarily in its national interest. . . . There are hints of Malthus here, and of Oswald Spangler’s Decline of the West as well. Mr. Kunstler’s book is a jeremiad, driven by authorial presence. Pithy, entertaining descriptions of historical phenomena like the Soviet Union . . . enliven the text, allowing the veteran commentator to expound on themes that might read leaden by a less facile wordsmith. . . . The book succeeds as an accessible primer to a looming crisis that could end the American way of life.” A.G. Gancarski, Washington Times

Kunstler is an amusing and engaging observer and polemicist, and the terrain he surveys is unforgiving and perilous.” Robert Birnbaum, The Morning News

Novelist and journalist James Howard Kunstler is the leading popular voice of peak oil, the theory that says we have gone through more than half the world’s supply of this much-needed resource. Kunstler’s regular Monday morning posts foretell a world beset by oil shortages, which he believes will lead to everything from financial shenanigans (sound familiar?) to food riots, not to mention attacks on the wealthy, abandoned suburban housing developments and a forced return to small-town living.” Helaine Olen, Portfolio

Kunstler displays a kind of macabre wit about the unpleasantness and strife that await us all. . . . His assertions have a neat way of doubling back to anticipate your critiques. If you express doubt about his views, then you may well be among the deluded masses too addicted to your McSUV and McSuburb to accept the reality that lies ahead.”
Katharine Mieszkowski, salon.com

Kunstler is America’s version of an Old Testament prophet, a stinging social critic who warns of dark days ahead if we do not change the way we live.” Brian Kaller, Pulse

Kunstler’s book was shockingly readable and engaging .He covers a vast array of topics I felt like I’d taken a crash course on Big Oil, Global Warming, and Geopolitics just to name a few.” Romi Lassally, Huffington Post

James Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency may be destined to become the Dante’s Inferno of the twenty-first century. It graphically depicts the horrific punishments that lie ahead for Americans for more than a century of sinful consumption and sprawling communities, fueled by the profligate use of cheap oil and gas. Its central message that the country will pay dearly unless it urgently develops new, sustainable community-scale food systems, energy sources, and living patterns should be read, digested, and acted upon by every conscientious U.S. politician and citizen.” Michael Shuman, author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age

If you give a damn, you should read this book.” Colin Tudge, The Independent (UK)

Kunstler concentrates on the continuing environmental instability and the political consequences of the fuel cessation in equal bouts and this makes for a well rounded argument.” Buzz (UK)

In the annals of doomsday literature . . . The Long Emergency is destined to become the new standard. . . . Demands frank consideration of what up to now has been unthinkable: that the ascendancy of the human race might have been a temporary phenomenon. . . . This case has been made before, but here it is made powerfully and articulately, with no apology and no hint of reprieve. . . . The Long Emergency represents a wake-up call’ in the same sense that a hand grenade tossed through your bedroom window might serve as an alarm clock. The book is stark and frightening. Read it soon.” Jim Charlier, Daily Camera

A shrewd and engaging social commentator.” Sierra Atlantic

Adds a relentless, scary, and entertaining voice to the rising alarm about life after the cheap oil is gone. . . . The internal logic of the argument is persuasive, and one reads . . . the book with white knuckles.” Bryant Urstadt, technologyreview.com

Authoritative and eye-opening. His predictions for the future make for a page-turning Brave New World.’” T-D (London)

James Howard Kunstler has given us, with his usual engaging wit and verve, a new kind
of post-apocalypse scenario. Instead of the nuclear or ice-age wasteland of our earlier imaginings, he has depicted with detailed extrapolation the civilization of the United States after the oil runs out and a great economic collapse occurs. It is a strangely arcadian vision, like the agrarian America that Jefferson, Calhoun, and the Southern Agrarians dreamed of. But Kunstler has fleshed it out with delightful quirky insights and provided our science fiction writers with a fresh mise-en-scene.” Frederick Turner, author of The New World and The Culture of Hope

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1843544547
• ISBN 13: 9781843544548
• Binding: Paperback