Customer Reviews

Nuclear War Survival Skills: Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition

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There are a number of do-it-yourself guides to civil defense available, but most seem to be aimed at hard-core survivalists who have crack outdoor skills, and lots of specialized equipment. This book is very different and is written for the average citizen by a former U.S. Army officer, field geologist and civil engineer who built and field-tested the "expedient" shelters described within while still employed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

These shelters can be put togeather within a few hours by ordinary, untrained men and women. (It is a good idea to take a weekend and practice building them.) They provide good protection during the weeks it may take for fallout to decay to negligible levels of radioactivity. (Expedient blast shelters, which also protect against the shockwave from a nearby explosion, are also discussed.)

The author is clear and thorough throughout, supplying checklists for supplies, equipment and materials; detailed building instructions and descriptions of the genuine (as opposed to fanciful) effects of nuclear weapons. There is also a valuable discussion of the purchase and use of potassium iodide compounds for protection of the thyroid gland from absorption of radioiodine. Finally, detailed plans and instructions are provided for the construction and use of a homemade fallout meter(!) to indicate radiation levels. (It is a lot more accurate than many of the over-priced, defective-or-uncalibrated war-surplus "Geiger counters" on the market!)

The 2001 edition contains a new chapter on the hazards of trans-Pacific fallout, which could drift eastward to the U.S. mainland from a nuclear conflict in Asia. (Such as India vs. Pakistan, or a North Korean nuclear attack on the South or Japan.) There is also a new appendix detailing the persuasive medical and scientific evidence that low levels of ionizing radiation below a certain threshold do no harm to humans or other forms of life, or their descendants. In fact, it may make them healthier. (Far from being crackpot, this concept is known in Biology as "hormeisis" and is dicussed in a recent article in DISCOVER magazine; see "Is Radiation Good for You?", DISCOVER Vol. 23 No. 12, December 2002.) This should help to dispel the superstition that radiation is some sort of magic poison, and that any amount is deadly.

Anyone not living in a fool's paradise realizes that the chance of a nuclear detonation in an American city is probably higher now than it ever was when the United States and Soviet Union were locked in mutual standoff. Nuclear deterrance may have worked even on hardened Soviet or Chinese apparatchiks; but to to depend on it alone now against psychopaths and apocalyptic fanatics is to invite hideous disaster.

Are you bothered when you read that the Russians are building a giant underground city in the Ural Mountains? Have you ever heard of Mount Weather?

The people who want the American people to cower in vulnerability to nuclear attack do not want anyone to read this book. Kearny addresses the things courageous individuals and families can do ON THEIR OWN, using the McGyver approach, to improve their chances of survival.

Drop the giant-cockroach nonsense and learn the effects of blast, radiation, and fallout. Learn to build your own fallout shelter in a day using shovels, axes, and saws. Learn to make a fallout radiation meter from a coffee can, a chunk of drywall, and a piece of aluminum foil. Make a shelter ventilation fan in hours from wood laths, plastic sheeting, cord, hinges, and staples. Make a mortar-and-pestle-style grain mill from a section of steel pipe and a coffee can.

The designs and procedures were developed and field tested on real-live Americans over many years at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Even if you have a merely-idle interest in technical subjects, you will enjoy this book, and it might even save your life. This is a great book that changes the way people see nuclear war and strategic military policy.

With the destabilization of the balance of terror, we are back looking at the possibilities of nuclear wars, at least on a small scale. Kearny's book is dead practical on surviving in your house or in a quickly built shelter in the boonies. No sentimentality here, he points out that older people should do the jobs that risk nuclear contamination, because they are less likely to live to develop cancers from it. Very good on structures, staying warm (how many layers of newspaper sheets to put under your bathrobe), lots of very clear photos and drawings, and pretty good on cooking, sanitation, and lighting, too. Just a trifle weak on nutrition, as he does not understand vegetarian protein. So don't make this the only book you take along. Fiction writers -- here's your protag's survival hazards and solutions in one place, with nothing stupid or extreme.

The bomb!
This is a government sponsored field manual that tells individuals how to prepare for and how to survive "the bomb". And as preparedness books, and Government manuals go - this book is the BOMB!

Many books on survival and preparedness are shallow, poorly researched and untested, fear mongering or written with a social or political bend. Or the advice of the book amounts to - "Sit tight, take notes, wait for government officials, they will save you". This book is none of those things. It was written by Cresson Kearny - a Rhodes scholar who was working as a research engineer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the time that he was asked to write this book. His other qualifications include (but are not limited to!) serving in WWII - where he worked on testing and improving jungle combat gear for US soldiers. As a demolition specialist in China (during a portion of the Japanese invasion). He was re-recruited by the US military for combat gear improvement for US soldiers in Vietnam. He also traveled the world trading knowledge with other countries on protecting civilians from the effects of a nuclear war. Etc, etc.

Mr. Kearny has thoroughly researched and thought through the most likely scenarios (most relevant at the time that he wrote this book) and gives step-by-step solutions on how to deal with each problem. His solutions are simple, tested and can be implemented by almost all individuals. He advocates looking out for yourself, and gives advice on how to do so.

Although this book was specifically written to address a massive nuclear war with Russia - the knowledge and approaches in this book can be applied to all disaster scenarios. Some of the things he covers:

-Facts and myths about nuclear bombs.
-Mental preparations
-Warnings that a bomb has gone off/ are on their way.
-Communications
-Evacuations - when/ where...
-Shelters, building several quick, effective fallout shelters (all tested by him and by "average American families").
-living in the shelter - water, food, CO2/fire dangers, ventilating the shelter, light, sanitation, medical, furnishings, clothing, cooking, how long to stay in there...
-detailed instructions and templates used for building a radiation meter from common household items! (Invented by him - the "Kearny Fallout Meter" or KFM)
-detailed instructions and templates for construction of a homebuilt ventilator.
-where to find food and antibiotics for you and the rest of the country, how to process that food so that it can be eaten by adults and children. (And how to build any tools needed to process that food).
-special dietary considerations for children.

The information is presented in a - this is what is important and here's how an average person should/could go about doing this - manner. Very simple, very straightforward, very hands-on.

I have only scratched the surface on the wealth of practical information contained in this manual. Buy it! Then buy one for a friend!

Note: This book is available as a free PDF download (do a search on: Nuclear War Survival Skills PDF download). I recommend downloading it and reading it. I suspect you will then want to have a hard copy on hand too.

4-17-07 Addendum: one of the assumptions of this book was that our satellites (USA) would show missiles being fueled and fielded, and cities being evacuated. This would give us a 2-3 day advanced notice of a major power's (Russia's and/or China's) nuclear launch. This is no longer a good assumption.
Events that have occurred since this book was written:
-Russia has built and actively maintains excellent permanent shelters for most of its population.
-Russia has upgraded its missiles (and continues to actively do so).
-China has maintained and is actively improving its excellent system of shelters and underground facilities.
-China has upgraded its missiles (and continues to actively do so at an alarming rate).

When using this book keep in mind the above changes - ie don't count on the USA having a 2 day warning.

This book is an unemotional, no-nonsence resource for anyone interested in the title's predicate. Having built and tested Kearney's radiation meter, with the household materials suggested, I am convinced of the author's practical veracity espoused in the other sections of this volume. I highly recommend this book to anyone unprejudiced by the present hypnotic malaise of a materialistic utopia and pollyanna belief in the "end of history". It is worth noting that with the advent of the ICBM we became, without grasping it, a continental power, with all that this engenders. That others with ideologies bent on our destruction continue to manuever toward this end should be no surprise.To quote the great Chinese General and Strategist Sun Tsu -- "All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when we are far away we must make him believe we are near. Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him." Consider both the Russians (Soviets) and the Chinese in this light. Get busy! Pray! Have Faith! Read Kearney, and learn to survive. -Suggested related reading: Origins of the Fourth World War, by J.R Nyquest, 1998; The Perestroika Deception, by Anatoliy Golitsyn, 1995

This is 'the' guide for surviving a nuclear disaster. The author worked at Oak Ridge Nuclear Facility and the government asked him to write this guide. It can be download off the web for free, but I'm a big fan of books...they still work when the power goes out. Explains the effects of a nuclear explosion as well as fallout and how to protect yourself and family. Though the drawings are a bit simplistic and 1950-60ish it gets the point across. The supply lists and preparation lists can be applied to many major disasters.

You will initially survive a nuclear attack. This is the initial premise of Cresson Kearny's outstanding manual on nuclear war. Only a small number of people would be killed in the initial explosion of a nuclear blast, whether it is from a massive Russian or Chinese attack, or even a more limited terrorist attack. The `conventional wisdom' is that there is no reason to prepare for a nuclear attack as everyone will be wiped out, most quickly and painlessly. This wisdom is completely wrong. Kearny explains in great detail what will happen during a nuclear attack, what the obvious and not so obvious dangers are, and what you should do to prepare yourself. This book was originally published in the 1970s at the height of the Cold War, but is perhaps even more relevant today given the increased threat of limited nuclear attacks by terrorists or other non-state forces.

Simply put, this is a User's Manual for civil defense. What to do before a nuclear attack is likely, and how to avoid many of the post-attack dangers (particularly fallout). I'm actually surprised that this information isn't more widely disseminated in the US. In fact, among the public, there is almost no public awareness or even recognition of civil defense, only that the `government' must have plans in place to deal with catastrophes. This is a dense tome filled with details, but even a small amount of information in this manual could be vital to an individual's or family's survival after a nuclear weapon is detonated near their home.

This manual includes information on the effects of a thermonuclear detonation, how much damage is done, how wide spread it would be, the dangers of fallout, how to mitigate the effects of fallout (probably the single most important aspect of the book), how to build a shelter (both a quick, expedient shelter, and a more elaborate shelter if you have the time), the effects of radiation sickness, preparations for storing food and water, and how to build a simple but effective radiation detector. There is enough detail to keep a hardcore survivalist busy for years, but you don't need to be a hardcore survivalist to find this useful. This manual also includes enough basic information that the average American should be aware of that could make the difference between life and death. Many of the problems/issues addressed by Kearny are also relevant to other types of natural disasters or crisis situations, not just a thermonuclear attack.

I have to agree with another reviewer that this manual would also be of great use to authors who want to write about nuclear war. Even if you don't think that a nuclear attack is all that likely (or you truly are living at ground zero and won't survive the initial blast), I found this to be an interesting, readable account of what to do. You can find this manual online for free, but the nice bound edition is definitely worth the $20 in my view. Highly, highly recommended.

This is truly a remarkable book. It contains a compendium of knowledge on civil defense approaches for surviving a nuclear war. Much of this material will apply directly to impact threats from asteroids and comets. It's a book you can stake your life on.

Ignore "A reader from China"'s review folks. I have read both the 1979 edition & the 1987 updated & expanded edition. It only got better & more informative. Read the copyright in the begining of the book. Mr. Kearny hasn't maked a dime off this book, he just wan't you to survive.

This is an updated late-Cold War guide to the effects of nuclear weapons, survival strategies, and practical construction techniques for shelters designed to withstand special weapons effects in the wake of a nuclear exchange with a peer power. While this is available for free on the web as a pdf file, the inherent practicality of a printed and bound text makes it ideal for reference under emergency conditions.

The book includes detailed instructions for shelter construction, ventilation methods, etc. These all seem workable. I would only note that creating a shelter of substance would involve a real investment of time and labour; one also has to be able to interpret and action design and construction instructions. Practice would make perfect. This would be practical in any heightening of tension scenario (still relevant, for example, on the west coast viz. North Korea), but would be less relevant to a bolt-from-the-blue terrorist strike in or near an urban area.

That said, the book contains excellent myth-busting information that counters conventional uninformed assumptions about the "inevitability" of death by radiation, etc. Vital information is included about the extent of the radiation danger and its limits. This alone is necessary psychologial armament to build the necessary resistance to dispair and giving up that would probably kill more people than an actual nuke.

All in all, this book is highly recommended for the information therein, and as a means of preparing oneself for a worst-case scenario. Because no matter how often Teleprompter Jesus apologizes to the world, this threat won't go away.