The Knowledge - How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch (Lewis Dartnell, 2014)

[Tibbs735]

A great book for any prepper thinking even abstractly about long term survival or rebuilding (rebuilding is not a dirty word!)

Easy to read, popular science book, it is written for the survivor of a catastrophe who has made it through the initial crash, and is now with some others or alone, but is enjoying the "grace period" on scavenged or stored supplies before having to truly start from scratch. Dartnell proceeds to break down and explain critical areas to start work at rebuilding a reasonably advanced civilization (by reasonably advanced I mean gunpowder and printing press level.) Each of these areas is a project that could be attempted by any reasonably competent prepper, e.g. making lime, or extracting potassium nitrate from soil.

A list of the topics covered:
Agriculture
Food
Clothing
Substances
Materials
Medicine
Power
Transport
Communication
Advanced Chemistry
Time and Place
The Greatest Invention (You'll have to read the book to find out what this one is!)

It goes over each subject with a reasonable level of detail, but I'd recommend some background research into each project before starting. It'll inspire you to try out lots of seriously practical science experiments.

It's also one of the more positive pieces of "prepper" literature out there; constantly dwelling on the starving hordes overrunning your armoured redoubt in Wales can get a little draining....

It's available on Amazon, and it's from a British perspective (Author is British.)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Knowledge-Re...1847922279

[Devonian]

Thanks Tibbs, I've had that book on my amazon wish list for months but was unsure if it was worth the purchase, think I'll have to add it to the cart now

[NorthernRaider]

Thanks Mr Tibbs, I've preordered the paperback version that's released early next year.