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Knowledge Paperback – January 1, 2015
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- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVintage Uk
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2015
- Dimensions5.08 x 0.83 x 7.8 inches
- ISBN-100099575833
- ISBN-13978-0099575832
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Product details
- Publisher : Vintage Uk (January 1, 2015)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0099575833
- ISBN-13 : 978-0099575832
- Item Weight : 8.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.08 x 0.83 x 7.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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He writes:
"This is a survivors' guidebook. Not one just concerned with keeping people alive in the weeks after the Fall -- plenty of handbooks have been written on survival skills -- but one that teaches how to orchestrate the rebuilding of a technologically advanced civilization."
- from page 2 of INTRODUCTION
He describes some of the knowledge and processes needed to "reboot" civilization by rebuilding technology and touches briefly on the basics of shelter, water, food, fuel, medicine and off-grid electric power. He suggests that with a good knowledge of the history of science and technology, it is possible to streamline that process and "leapfrog" some sections that were not needed to reach later points in the timeline. He goes into a little more depth in describing AGRICULTURE in Chapter 3 and FOOD AND CLOTHING in Chapter 4.
The most interesting part of the book begins with Chapter 5 on Substances. He describes the importance of using thermal energy beyond that of a simple fire in the processes of: smelting, forging, casting, glass working, making salt, burning lime, firing bricks and more. He describes the extraction of calcium carbonate from limestone and burning it in a hot kiln to create calcium oxide which is in turn combined with water to make hydrated lime (calcium hydroxide). These steps form a foundation for later chemical processes that involve making soap, ammonia, glue, gunpowder and plastics. The chapter continues to describe the chemistry of wood pyrolisis, which involves collecting vapor from baked wood to make methanol, acetone and tars or drive a combustion engine. The chapter is completed with a brief discussion of acids.
MATERIALS is the topic of Chapter 6 and it builds nicely on the previous discussion with sections on clay, lime mortars, metals and glass. Crude clay can be fired at high temperature to make ceramics which turn out to be very useful with both chemistry and later electronics, in both cases because it mostly stays not involved with process changes. Clay is a primary source for aluminum. Lime mortar led to cement which had a huge impact on building technology. Ceramics, cement and clay are instrumental in making high temperature kilns and furnaces. It is possible to melt salvaged aluminum, like soda cans, in a small furnace and using a sand casting process, produce simple parts to make a working metal lathe. The metal lathe can reproduce itself as well as make more complex metal working machines like the milling machine. This project is thoroughly documented in a small 7-book series called, "Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap" by David and Vincent Gingery. This is great example of Dartnell's concept of accelerating development by leapfrogging.
The book continues with chapters on MEDICINE, POWER, TRANSPORT, COMMUNICATION, ADVANCED CHEMISTRY and one titled TIME AND PLACE which deals with timekeeping, clocks and navigation. The final chapter, THE GREATEST INVENTION, is about the scientific method and its application.
In order for this book to really accomplish what it suggests, it would need to be much larger. There are missing pieces that would be needed to complete the rebuilding of advanced technology. For instance: in order to recreate modern electronics, we need advanced lenses and optics, photographic emulsion chemistry (which is covered in this book), more on electrolysis and plating, modern electronics and more advanced knowledge. Maybe this is reason for Dartnell to consider a "part two" book. But this book is a great start and should be considered a must for any complete survival library or collection on the history of science and technology.
It is also extremely well annotated and referenced and from a knowledge management viewpoint is work the price of the book just for the knowledge map it provides to other sources. To be fair, there is some missing detail in some areas, but in most cases, it seems like the detail is available in the referenced material. A perfect example is the section on building your own metal shop. Dartnell cannot cover all the material in the small seven book series he references, but he does cover enough of the overall idea to make it clear what great potential is there and then references the source to make it available to the reader.
-- From The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell
*****
Anyone who thinks civilization is indestructible doesn't get out much.
The past is heaped in ruin. The future harbors the chance of natural and/or man-made cataclysm. Our present appears more than a little shaky.
Like our bodies, it's quite possible that something vital will one day give 'way. The system-as-a-whole clutches its collective chest and expires, gasping. Is crushed by falling rock. Or brought low by hurled, nuclear-tipped spear.
What then?
The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell goes a long way toward answering that question. He provides an over-view of means by which that our world might re-boot itself from little more than scratch. A tool-kit of core, synergetic technologies with which industrial society has been achieved. Yet it is not prescriptive; this Knowledge empowers the future but leaves it to find its own way.
Along the way, Dartnell provides a fascinating tour through the 'engine-room' of our industrial world. He illuminates its essential functions, interdependencies and history. Cataclysm or no, his book will have you looking with new eyes at the ubiquitous, taken-for-granted substances and artifacts permeating our lives. Should cataclysm befall us... well... it's a magnificently conceived gift to the future.
The Knowledge is a tour de force which should appeal, not just to Doomers such as myself, but to any who yet feel the Renaissance passion for the Knowledge of our own times. That lauded and once valued Jack-or-Jill-of-all trades-kind of Knowledge that deepens our appreciation for our world, and extends our reach within it.
Wonderful book, and I mean full of wonders! I return to its pages time and again, as seeds it has sown bloom within me.
The Knowledge initiates a magnificent and, I believe, vital project.
To my mind, it succeeds where many have failed to strike that narrow balance between too much and too little. It accepts its limitations and goes a long way toward persuading those who may be so moved, that a 'stitch in time' is a worthy goal.
Where it is, perhaps, improvable has more to do with presentation than content; the not trivial task of speaking effectively to persons not yet born, and who inhabit a world homo sapiens has never seen. For them, the great torch of technology – from fire to the Clovis point to the germ theory – handed from generation to generation may well have been dropped.
Lewis Dartnell has taken up the part of Prometheus, offering fire to the future.
Godspeed!
*****
As with technology, The Knowledge is but the tip of an iceberg. Visit The-Knowledge.org to participate in re-booting the future.
Top reviews from other countries

What this book is, is a GUIDE to the essentials of things a group would need in order to rebuild. It GENERALISES the information without any actual steps for survival or revival.
There are a few clipart drawings in the book, but nothing that would useful to craft from.
HOWEVER, were someone else to write ANOTHER book, with complete PLANS, and SCHEMATICS, and BLUEPRINTS, and checklists and tools, and DIY HOW-TO's (eg how to obtain and smelt iron, and then make it into steel, how to identify and extract medicines from plants, etc), using this book as a baseline GUIDE, then that next book combined with this book, would become THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KNOWLEDGE needed to rebuild the world.
(*nudge nudge wink wink*) We NEED that second book!!!

It is important to note the knowledge is a popular science book first, and a primer on rebooting civilisation second. It doesn’t give many good tips on how to prepare for serious disaster, and the possible disaster it imagines is quite a rosy one. The author assumes a terrible pandemic wipes out all save ~2% of the population. These 2% then have an extended grace period during which they can live off the decaying capitalist wreck that surrounds them. The cans in one supermarket are enough to feed a family of 4 for 50 years or so.
A real disaster, were it to occur, would probably leave more people alive and have a shorter grace period, if any. So preparing for one would be much more important.
The book references several great works, some of which I had already read, and some which I was pointed to. One of these, the essay “I, Pencil”, was excellent, and much better than the book. It is an account of how a modern wooden HB pencil came to be in this world, as told to the writer by the pencil. It is a meditation on the complexity of global supply chains and the decentralised brain at the heart of capitalism. The book’s author refers to it as an example of what we would lose when the economy collapses, and to his credit he does emphasise the importance of re-starting economic activity as soon as possible.
The knowledge doesn’t quite live up to its potential. If it were written with a more expansive style, it might’ve explored ideas like how bands of survivors might meet and go about setting up a post-apocalyptic society. The book could then explore the roles of the members of such a society, and smuggle the science in this way. As it is, it comes across like an extremely well written textbook about essential manufacturing, instead of the tightly-written primer it aspires to be. But it was still very interesting and I learned a lot. I would cautiously recommend it.

I had had great fantasies reading this book. How can the survivors make soap, perhaps gun powder. Perhaps even develop competitive civilisation with cars and electricity. Science gets very interesting in this way I found.
However, not all chapters were easy to read as
technology becomes complicated.
Well worth a read though.
Who knows what Robinson Crusoe would have made of that island had he a copy of this book.


A really interesting book and a handy guide that I how we never have to use!