Writer, commentator, news source, and most of all critic, James Howard Kunstler combines an unforgiving disdain of America’s fossil fuel-based way of life with a scalding rejection of modern architecture, suburban zoning laws, and what he sees as much of the media’s complicity in the whole thing. A news junkie and major force behind the nascent “beyond the oil age” movement, Kunstler pulls no punches with his sharp tongue and engaging prose damning Americans’ over-reliance on their automobiles. His seemingly endless cheerless scolding doesn’t make him a pessimist, however, and certainly not a shy and retiring one. It’s just that the future he sees is a lot different from the one we have and the one that so many of his fellow citizens seem unable to see beyond.