Back to Basics [Hardcover]

Editors of Reader's Digest (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1981

This particular book is as it's title implies Back To Basics. It is an excellent book which will give you a historic view of how things were done in the past and give you a foundation to build your skills on. In the event of a disaster, it will give you guide lines on how to do tasks and build skills to help you come out on top of many situations that can result from a natural disaster, a financial disaster and hone your survival skills. I recommend it for this reason.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Readers Digest (July 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895770865
• ISBN-13: 978-0895770868
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Short Self-Sufficiency Book Yet, May 30, 2010

By 

Faustus "Faustus" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I am a survivalist by nature and always am looking for ways to prep myself for the worst. Even though I know a lot it is always good to have a reference around just in case you forget something. This book can give you all that you need for survival in North America and many other locations with little effort, great detail, and lots of pictures for easy to understand explanations. This is an older book that was recommended to me by another mountain man here on Amazon.com rather than some of the other self-sufficiency books. I found all the information here to be well documented and referenced and most importantly VERY accurate. Though this book is certainly no field guide (you can't stick in easily in your pocket) it is also VERY thorough. I would also recommend as a companion that you get the SAS survival guide only because that does fit in your pocket and was written by a well-known former British Special Ops member.

Many of the books you will see hear will try to tout all the pictures they have, the wide variety of topics they cover, or some other third thing but none of them will tell you the overall quality of the knowledge provided. Some are better than others such as The Guide to Self-Sufficiency published by DK Books but all of them seem to be lacking short concise answers and explanations. Others just ramble and others worse yet have irrelevant information. The chapters of this book are as follows:

1) Land: Different types of homes that can be built, how to prepare/cut wood, use building tools/supplies, preparing land for a home, etc.

2) Energy Sources: This explains how to use the natural world for a variety of tasks from grinding grain (water wheel) to using the sun and or earth for natural and continuous heating and cooling. Other topics include wind, solar, etc.

3) Raising Food: This covers the care of and maintenance of livestock, plants, gardens, fish, bees, pests, etc.

4) Keeping and storing food/harvest: Making cheese and other diaries, gathering maple sugar, bread making, recipes, etc.

5) Home crafts and skills: Covers everything from basket making to metal/blacksmithing. Others include leather tanning, soap making, weaving, coloring, etc.

6) Recreation: This is where the authors have a bit more fun in going over the old activities people used to enjoy such as the may pole, marbles, and tons of other oddities. It will even teach you to make dolls, board games, canoe, and more.

Now keep in mind this is a abridged version of everything in the book. It has other things that include first aid, weather forecasting, edible plants, well making and more. It is again VERY thorough and with out any unnecessary fluff as some other books may have. Just because something is 30 years old (the book was published in the 1980s) doesn't mean the information is not relevant. The information provided is quite relevant and has not really changed at all even over the last 300 years in American history. This is a great survivalist book and guide to self-sufficiency, so don't wait and buy this great book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Basic and instructional, December 24, 2007

By 

M. Post (Kenosha, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Back to Basics (Hardcover)

Overall a very good book with enough information to let you find out if you're interested in learning more about various aspects of traditional living.

Lots of illustrations and photos and a logical flow of information from the large to the smaller aspects.

If you're dipping your toe into the idea of a more traditional lifestyle this is the place I would recommend starting.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back to Basics, October 28, 2008

By 

Leroy V. Sternhagen "Roy Sternhagen,Old timer" (North Little Rock, AR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Back to Basics (Hardcover)

This particular book is as it's title implies Back To Basics. It is an excellent book which will give you a historic view of how things were done in the past and give you a foundation to build your skills on.

In the event of a disaster, it will give you guide lines on how to do tasks and build skills to help you come out on top of many situations that can result from a natural disaster, a financial disaster and hone your survival skills. I recommend it for this reason.

While the book is out of print, it is still available at a reasonable cost through the connections that Amazon.com offers.