Dr. John Taylor's compelling memoir illustrates the life most people only dream of: traveling and living abroad while working in a profession that creates real change in the world. Off the Beaten Path tells the story of Taylor's evolution from his Quaker upbringing to a multi-faceted career as an urban planner and consultant. After spending several years working in poverty-stricken Calcutta and Patna during times of calamity, Taylor examines the lessons from his five-decade career and forty years working in Asian countries, including India, Thailand, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Throughout the book, he effortlessly weaves together vignettes of family life, adapting to new cultures, the tensions between his personal and professional values, and his post-career identity. Ultimately, for this transcultural nomad, the question of "where is home" resonates throughout a life rich with experiences....

John Lewis Taylor was born in 1935 in Evanston, Illinois, and raised in a Quaker family. His first degree was from Oberlin College and he obtained his MSc in City Planning from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. He obtained his PhD in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA, with a focus on urban planning in developing countries. His previous publications include Urban Planning Practice in Developing Countries, 1982; "Evaluation of Selected Impacts of the Jakarta Kampung Improvement Program," Ph.D. dissertation at UCLA, 1983; "Shelter Upgrading for the Urban Poor: Evaluation of Third World Experience," 1987 and "Indonesia's Urban Infrastructure Development Experience: Critical Lessons of Good Practice," 1995. He lives with his wife, Paulina Hutabarat, in Jakarta, Indonesia....