Customer Reviews

Ragnar's Urban Survival: A Hard-Times Guide to Staying Alive in the City

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is more about the history of urban survival, rather than a survival guide. The info contained within is very vauge. He uses more examples of what other people have done rather than teaching you what to do. What info there is, is quite good, but only a few pages of the book are usefull. If you can get the book used at a real good price it would be good to have just to give you a reference for what the worst case could be, but as a survival guide it fails to instruct on the techniques of urban survival in any significant manner.

Mr. Benson's guide to urban survival is an interesting, if not very deep, guide to surviving some very hard times in an urban area. He touches on all the basic topics that one will need to know about in order to survive, and applies a basic 'rule of threes' strategy to all of them. Unfortunately, the book never gets beyond the basics of the topics presented. You're also going to have to wade through a lot of contradictory information to assess what is best for your situation. For example, he discourages solar power as it is expensive and could compromise the location of your retreat, but he praises the noisy and expensive diesel generator later. Overall though, this book is worth a read. One very strong word of caution, however. Take his food storage section with a very large grain of salt. The information presented there is dubious at best, and his guide to canning meats with a steam bath canner could very well get you killed.

Ragnar is a person who doesn't provide any actual survival information. He has never actually had to live the live of a survivalist. He even states in several parts that the "been there, done that" crowd, meaning survivors in Beruit and other places say that his ideas are not practical or even feasable.

Another disturbing shortcoming is that Rasgnar switches between urban and rural survival when it is convienent or he needs to sidestep a problem.

From the standpoint of a homeless veteran who has to live the life of a survivalist everyday, I can say that none of his ideas are practical or even feasable.

This book is gut-wrenching i tell ya, when he talks about water and food. Makes you think twice about what kinda plans you thought you had.

The sections on water were the ones that struck the most cords for me. I knew it was gonna be alot of work, but he really lays out the whole scenario of just how tough it might end up being. This book is a great addition for anyone's survival library. I'm a fan of all his books, read a couple already with some more on the way. Real look, no BS. That pretty much sums it up. Anyone into survival already or someone just getting started needs to read this book. If your looking for a book about "Urban Survival" read this one first.

I got a couple more books to read then im gonna read through this one a few more times. Lights a fire in you to take a few more steps or start running a bit faster if you think you were doing pretty good before.

In his book, Ragnar Benson outlines specific, and essential, city survival techniques for hard times living. Based upon his personal survival experiences in Germany after World War I, he educates the reader on the necessity of preparing for food, and other supply shortages. He offers a unique perspective, and presents practical ideas for personal, and family preparations. His Rule of 3's is something I had never heard of before; and is worth the price of the book alone. I absolutely love the information presented in this book. The author's advice is extremely practical, and very doable. It is a must read for anyone living in the city or suburbs, who wishes to pursue a more self sustaining lifestyle, in good times and bad.

I was a bit disappointed after I read this book. There is plenty of information and things to consider, but very little useful suggestions you could act on! The book gives you an good understanding of what it can be like living in a war zone, or an area where the government has collapsed, but if you're going to tell me not to do something in a survival situation, you need to suggest alternative courses of action. Ragnar just doesn't give you many suggestions and it make this book much less useful than it could have been.

This is a rubber meets the road type guide. A good how to that explains why you should.

This book is a pretty good read. It's entertaining, and has some stuff you need to know, should you ever be in need of surviving in a city.

When I first saw this book I wasn't going to buy it. Too many of these survival books just rehash the same info just to sell a book. But I'm embarased to say because of the title I tried it. I was surprised it was alot better than expected. Ragnar really did focus on urban survival and used quite a few quotes, stories and examples from other real life survivors in urban invironments. This book is fresh compared to his last few books. Because of this book I'm going to buy his next book Survival Nursing. Benson was starting to get stale but he is back!

THE BOOK IS ABOUT 80-90% ON THE MONEY! CHOCK FULL OF THINGS TO THINK ABOUT AND TO ACT ON. DIDN'T CARE MUCH FOR THE CHAPTER ABOUT GUNS. I DON'T THINK MANY FOLKS ARE GOING TO START BUILDING A VERY EXPENSIVE LONG-RANGE HIGH VELOCITY SNIPER TYPE RIFLE TO TAKE OUT ASSETS AT GREAT DISTANCE. THE GREATEST DISTANCE I EXPECT TO DEAL WITH WOULD BE ABOUT 200 YARDS, SO I DON'T NEED STATE OF THE ART CUSTOM MADE WEAPONRY WITH 400 DOLLAR BARRELS AND SCOPES COSTING TWICE THAT MUCH. OTHER THAN THAT, THE BOOK COVERS LOTS OF GROUND AND HAS SOME VERY GOOD POINTERS.