Customer Reviews

The Poor Man's James Bond (vol. 1)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a USDI-National Park Ranger I completed a 13-week POST Basic (Police) Academy in the late 1970s. Kurt Saxon was an instructor (sans a few fingers) who showed up one day with a high-powered German pellet gun and proceeded to show us how to kill humans by firing into a very large roast beef. He then cut open the roast to show the depth of penetration (simulating a human skull and brain). He had our undivided attention!

Another demonstration was how to clear a room or bar in 30 seconds with common household materials and so forth. His missing fingers only added to his credibility. The result was as if we had been allowed to peer into Pandora's box for a few minutes and then allowed to close the lid without long-term consequences.

For those with maturity, responsibility and long-term ethics, this is a guide on how to be aware of those around you. Just as Mentos and soft drinks are a current curiosity, Saxon tells you what to do and what to be aware of. Saxon speaks from first-hand experience in civil rights demonstrations. Read and enjoy, but be aware, not everyone is well intentioned . . .

There is a storm of contraversity reagarding this book. Kurt Saxon is well known survivalist whose work is sometimes misunderstood as guide to terrorism, but in fact the book deals with broader subjects of how to survive if civilization collapse. The majority of the work should be required reading for people is high risk weather areas. Very few people would know how to survive for prolonged period without electricity or how to perserve food. With El Nino, Asteroids, and earthquake, this book may be the most valuable book you'll ever own.

This is the most information packed book I have ever read! After reading this book, I understood the value of knowledge. This book teaches chemistry in a way that you can use and is easy to Understand. If a small percent of any nation's people knew this material, their government would never become a tyrant and other nations would be afraid to invade. This is powerful knoledge that can save your life (or get you killed)! Be sure to read all of it before begining any mixing of chemicals. He gives must know safety information with each chemical or project.

Now the bad news: After reading this book, TV and movies will never be the same! All the BS they use becomes easy to spot and it ruins the movie! It becomes obvious that the script writer is woefully ignorant and you are not! Their movie will quickly become childish or seem stupid to you. Want to realy know something of value? Then study this book!

My husband asked me if I still had a copy of the Anarchist's Cookbook and I couldn't find it, so I asked him what he was interested in about it so I could offer better alternatives. He was interested in improvised munitions for a game he was working on. After some research and reading the other reviews, I settled on this book.
It's a good one. It gets really technical in spots, and the author really wants to share his political and social viewpoints which I'm not crazy about, but the information seems very solid for what we are doing with it. I do agree with my husband though, I wish very much that the political/social commentary was in a different font or color so you could skip those parts.

Many do not understand that Kurt Saxon's book is not so much anarchy as it is "survivalist" (as he put it). Also take note of some of the interesting articles presented in it. He proves a point. Man has bred way too far for productivity or sanity. This book is for the more stable and intelligent members of Man who can read and understand the knowledge is for a need-to-use kind of basis. It is not for children or morons.

That said, it is a lot better than "Anarchist's Cookbook" this one makes more sense. But to get a full picture, go to www.kurtsaxon.com and read some of his articles on Fantasy and Weaponary, it puts a lot in perspective. Saxon is a interesting contradiction. He scoffs at full auto weapons yet provides a few plans for them in his second volume. Ironic? Or maybe he just feels he should caution you first. Not sure.

I'm not sure I'd try any of the projects oulined in this volumous text, but I certainly enjoyed reading about 40 % of it. It gets very dry, long winded and flat-out BOOOOring when listing page after page of chemical compositions. But I guess if anyone wanted to actually attempt the processes outline, they'd need all that info and probably wouldn't find it as boring.
It wouldn't surprise me if Tim Mcviegh and Ted Kaczynski had copies (although I think Teddy's exploits started before the publication date) and Tyler Durden's (Fight Club) statement that gasoline and Orange Juice make napalm is an urban legend this book quickly lays to rest.
A good deal of the material is public domain, like the Marine Corp combat guide, and many of the chapters appear to be multi-generational photo-copies so I find the book a bit pricey. Still, if the subject matter is to your liking it will hold your interest for hours on end. It's big as a phone book. Weighs about 4 pounds. I'm surprised Saxon didn't suggest using the book itself as an improvised bludgen.

This book is great! I have tried 5 methods in this book, and all work as described! This is great, although, I would not let it fall in the hands of teenagers.

This is a great compilation of different manuals/handbooks. You can probably find most of the content in this book for free, but it's nice to have it all in one book. Most of the book is eaten up by pyrotechnics, but the end gets into hand-to-hand combat, and there is a very scary section on poisons. I keep it on the coffee table as a conversation piece. Overall is it packed with information and quite eye opening on how impossible it must be to control trained operatives. It's worth picking up.

I read this book and it was excellent! I did a few experiments and they all worked fine. I don't need to double check the recipes or anything else in this book cause its totally perfect. I would recommend this book to everyone interested in pyrotechny, explosives, guns, fighting so forth. This is the best book for the Anarchist. Although if this book falls in the wrong hands their will be a devastating result..

Most of us can't draw freehand; this guy can't either. You would think that if you were writing a book like this that describes how to make pipe bombs, among the many other things, that you would pay more attention to the illustrations.
When you first start reading you get the sense that this guy is really serious until he starts using the word "goody" to describe the chemicals and other items in the book. Then, when he starts to refer to activities such as firing a shotgun shell into someone's crotch as fun well, then you start to think you may have made a mistake in buying this book.
Something else that bothered me a great deal is something Saxon says in the opening pages, "50% of the adult population of the U.S. cannot follow the simplest instructions in this book." He goes on to state that his book is for the 20% of the world's population that is "intelligent and stable".
The author strikes me as being rather immature and ignorant so that is why the potential reader should be careful with the projects presented in this book. Research, experiment, verify and be careful!