Customer Reviews

Long-Term Survival In The Coming Dark Age: Preparing to Live after Society Crumbles

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It's impossible to predict exactly what type of disaster might cause the disruption (or total collapse) of The World As We Know It, therefore it is hard to create a book that will tell us everything we need to know to survive in such a scenario.
That said, Long Term Survival In The Coming Dark Age takes a pretty good stab at it.
I enjoyed the chapter on how to make caches so that supplies can be hidden and recovered years later.
The author takes the basic premiss that life will revert to something like the 1800's, so much of the book describes methods of improvising things like axes, knives, tools, clothes, rope, etc. While the author's homemade tools and clothes are beautifully crafted, I have a hard time imagining myself spending much time forging steel during a survival scenario. Even if all the stores are looted I think our society will have an abundance of remnant knives and axes to last quite a while. For at least a couple of decades I think scavenging will be a more important skill than blacksmithing.
This book is full of interesting skill and project ideas, but it's fragmented. The author has us building forges as if we will be cut off from the remnants of our civilization, but also caching guns, as if rounds or shells and gunpowder will somehow be available. It's somewhat hard to picture the scenario in which all these skills come together.
No one can paint a perfect picture of what survivors will be facing so we never know what skills exactly will be essential, so I will take what I can from this book. But I think the long term survival picture is going to be extremely dependent upon exactly How Many people are left vying for resources.
I think there will be few or no "free people" left. Men will all be killed or forced into ad hoc armies fighting and pillaging each other and women and children will all be captives of the armies, which will eventually evolve into the new civilizations. I don't like my scenario, but I think it resembles what life will be like a lot closer than the 1800's does. The 1800's may have been rough around the edges, but it had functional law and government and effectively it had castes so everyone had their "place." If society collapses today people will not fall into their new role as butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. They will become feral and destructive.

Okay, so all in all, I'm not sure the author takes us down the right path but I really like all the skills he goes into. There are lots of helpful photographs and a few "cutaway" drawings to help us understand how to construct devices, and the writing is easy to understand. I also like the advice to hunt small game like squirrels and pigeons. Every yahoo in the cities who's ever bought a gun will go roaming into the woods and ruin the hunting and probably all shoot each other. I wonder how to tell what animals should be avoided because of the possibility of rabies, plague, etc. I also wonder how to make gunpowder or anti-biotics.

I enjoyed this book. If you are thinking about survival you could do a lot worse than to read this.

while much of the info can be gotten elswhere, this author actually knows his subjects first hand,,,the barter economy chapter alone makes this a good buy....exceptional, imnsho

The first couple of chapters sound stangely familiar, it doesnt take much imagination to believe the premise presented for the collapse of our economy and goverernment, to me it sounded very much like what is happening right now!! It is fiction of course, but intwined in the story are hundreds of useful tips, stategies, and survival techniques. Well written, entertaining, and informative.

Ok, I've just bought and finished reading this book(Kindle Edition). It didn't take long because the whole book is only about 121 pages. The author generally states that when TSHTF, you better have some practical skills with you or you will be doomed. So there are chapters on caching supplies, blacksmithing, making fire, cordage, tying knots, tanning leather, making clothing, and keeping items for barter.

Even though I did learn some new skills, I think that there should be more detail on each topic and also agree with a former reviewer saying that there will be plenty of items laying around waiting to be scavenged and if you really have lots valuable items for barter, then there is no need to learn all the skills, just trade whatever tools or clothing you need and focus on one major skill.

What should really be focused are the more basic needs such as strengthening your home against natural/manmade disasters, how to acquire and store lots of clean water(harvesting rain, from streams & wells, using solar stills), growing your own food indoors using hydroponics, how to build a root cellar and ways of preserving the foods that you have grown and hunted. Because without these basic skills you won't have a chance of surviving long term especially after your cache supply runs out and you then find out later that the town already has a professional blacksmith, tailor, or leather maker, etc!

While this book may give a few obvious pieces of information, I found it to be well worth the money. "Long Term Survival" is an overview of several techniques and categories of knowledge that could come in handy if the current tyranny of the majority ever crumbles. Caching, equipment, skills and mindset are covered.

This is your basic survival book for the homestead. Great book to have on hand if your having problems getting by during collapse. Everything from fire starting to making your own clothes.

Ragnar Benson has a few words to say at the start of this book which was nice, i've bought and read many of his books from Amazon. This book feels a gap in the books he wrote, basic solutions to problems around the house.

Not alot else to say about this book, its not something you really sit down and read from cover to cover. You kill a deer and forgot how to tan the hide.... you pick up this book and refresh your memory. You feel like making your own knives when people begin to trade goods and services after the fighting calms down a bit...... you pick up this book. Thats the kinda book this is, pretty happy i bought it.

I was a little disappointed with this book. I felt in went too deep into survival techniques that were somewhat complex or require a great deal of skill. For instance, it spent a good deal of time talking about learning out to be a blacksmith with the premise that you will need to fashion your own tools in the absence of the local Home Depot being ransacked doing a disaster. Seriously? Some of the other basic skills are useful to someone just getting an understanding of getting through a survival situation. If it is available in your local library, get it and save your money for food/water supplies.

Probably my tenth or so TEOTWAWKI book that promised to be all encompassing for "Long Term Survival". Definately on the bottom of the pile by far. The information is covered everywhere else, for free, on the web or in other books. I guess to sum up my personal review of this book I would say it is acting as the cliff notes for a sub par book that the student really only wants a D on the test anyways.

This guide to survival seems to think that all technology will be wiped out in a long term emergency scenario. Actually, even with a nuclear war, large segments of modern tech. can be used with a bit of preperation and knowledge.

I don't care to live like a native american, I'll try to salvage what tech. I can, thanks!