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How to Survive Anywhere: A Guide for Urban, Suburban, Rural, And Wilderness Environments

  • 16 January 2010 12:27 pm

Product DescriptionThis unique book addresses the basic survival skills needed to keep you alive and healthy in the woods, suburbs, and city. Each chapter focuses on a primary area of concern–water, fire, food, shelter, clothing, tools, and weapons–describing in detail practices applicable to all environments. This one-of-a-kind guide provides real solutions to life-threatening situations caused by natural or man-made disasters, as well as the challenges encountered by anyone who wa. . . More >>

How to Survive Anywhere: A Guide for Urban, Suburban, Rural, And Wilderness Environments

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5 Comments

  1. T. OBRIEN - January 16, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    This is a well written book on Survival and preparedness.

    This belongs in everyone’s library.
    A must read. . . .
    Tom tob9595
    Rating: 5 / 5

  2. Richard Schwartz - January 16, 2010 at 4:35 pm

    The author is not competent in signalling and communications. He does not mention that flashlights can be communication tools if they have a momentary on button. Minimag and many other popular lights do not have this. (You can learn morse code in 1 day. )

    His suggestions about improvised sun-reflecting signals are worthless, as his reference to a “sighting hole” in signal mirrors. He does not understand how such things work. You can improvise a POTENT sun reflector signal that can be accurately aimed if you have a large piece of plain glass and a small mirror with an “X” aperture scraped from the silvering. Talk of using aluminum foil this way is nonsense. With this simple knowledge you might not have to practice cannibalism when your plane crashes in the Andes.

    His suggestions about pressing aluminum foil into a water-container for disinfection by boiling are worthless; the foil will have holes in it and will leak.

    His use of a bow to support a wire saw is not as good as could be. It is easy to make a much better holder with a heavy forked stick, a smaller end stick that pivots like a lever, and some parachute cord that can be twisted to tighten the lever.

    Rely on this book, and you probably won’t survive. There are other, much better books. John Build the Perfect Survival KitMcCann is no MacGyver.

    The only use of this book is to make me aware of a number of commercial products that I intend to try out.
    Build the Perfect Survival Kit
    Rating: 1 / 5

  3. Sam Adams - January 16, 2010 at 7:01 pm

    This book mixes together, in unequal portions, wilderness survival, primitive living, urban survival, and self-sufficiency. Therein lies its weakness and likely appeal. Chapter titles are: (1) water, (2) fire, lighting, energy, (3) health and hygiene, (4) clothing and shelter, (5) the world is tied together with fiber, (6) food, (7) tools and weapons, (8) first aid, (9) navigation, (10) what is survival?.

    Highlights include water via solar still and transpiration bag, beer can water filter, fire via hand drill and bow drill, cooking via cardboard box solar oven, nature’s soap-yielding plants, building an igloo, plant fibers, edible plants, the survival kit, and natural containers.

    Because the book has such a broad focus, it appears at times a superficial hodgepodge of ideas and methods. The book seems inclined towards the theme of getting along without modern conveniences if you can, yet using cast-off items from the modern world if available, or otherwise using techniques that mimic primitive living skills — as if the underlying aesthetic were: if you made it, it’s better than if you bought it, even if you made it from something you bought; and if you found it, it’s better than anything you bought; and if it’s made from natural, Earth-born objects, it’s even better yet. This is, in one sense, simply the notion of getting along with less, but more pointedly, it is getting along with less expense, and ultimately, with less of the modern, ready-made world.

    In a survival situation, of course, you have to make do with what you’ve got around you or can find, and you will need to create out of that what you need but do not have. In wilderness survival this is the reasoning behind learning how to start a fire with natural materials, create cordage from plant fibers, and build a shelter from tree limbs and leaves. The easily carried survival kit is an effort to prevent a complete descent into the primitive.

    Concerning food in wilderness survival, the author admits: “[W]hen we are speaking of survival skills, the knowledge of food plants is arguably the least important, while also being arguably one of the hardest to master. ” (p 171) It’s easy to know which animals we can eat, but learning the edible plants takes study and time.

    In primitive living pursuits, which are about a self-imposed, imitation lifestyle far more than about survival per se, there is a simple aesthetic: natural materials only, and no iron smelting allowed. (After all, the iron age gave impetus to a long procession of ever more complex tools, which led to the modern age; so if you let iron in the door, you’re on your way out of the primitive. ) The American Indian is one reference for this lifestyle. Basket and mat weaving, discussed in this book, have only occasional application to wilderness survival, but a clear value to primitive living. Nature’s soaps are probably another example. The chapter on edible plants straddles wilderness survival and primitive living, with less value for wilderness survival, as indicated by the previous paragraph.

    In urban survival there is the opportunity to lay out your supplies before their need arises: water storage, a wood burning stove, vegetable gardens and stored food, candles and oil lamps, extra blankets and a backyard tent. The city utilities being shut down and food markets closed, your well-being depends upon your forethought and material preparations. This book recommends a cast-off water heater, stripped of its shell, cleaned of internal sludge, painted black and recommissoned as a water storage tank or solar water heater. Notice the aesthetic. There is some advice on food storage, but the chapter on food is mainly about edible plants, an urban survival topic only if you’ve grown them in your backyard.

    In self-sufficiency, the concepts, attitudes and preparations of urban survival are extended to everyday living, but this time the disconnection from city utilities and markets is intentional, not done by some event external to the household. Self-sufficiency goes beyond primitive living and incorporates many objects from the modern world, while keeping as much of a financial independence from it as possible, at least after the initial investment. A couple of minor examples from the book are making a solar oven with cardboard boxes, making a capote or vest from a wool blanket, and making a backpack from a blanket or old drape or even from a pair of jeans. The improvised solar water heater fits here, too.

    The chapter on navigation is not about using a compass or reading a topographical map. It is on reading the stars and sun: locating north, estimating the time and the number of hours before nightfall.

    The author recommends several books along the way, including the novels Lucifer’s Hammer by Niven and Pournelle, Earth Abides by Stewert, The Wall by Haushofer, My Side of the Mountain by George, and Hole in the Sky by Hautman.

    Rating: 3 / 5

  4. Terry - January 16, 2010 at 9:14 pm

    Very well written and thought out. Covers a lot of ground thats both useful to a survival situation and a primitive lifestyle. There is something for everyone to learn in this book.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  5. Steve - January 16, 2010 at 10:38 pm

    “HOW TO SURVIVE ANYWHERE” is an excellent survey of survival tools, materials, techniques and strategies covering widely diverse circumstances. As a lecturer on “Post Crash Wilderness Survival” for the FAA, I find this book a valuable resource including information and techniques previously unknown to me. For anyone making a study of the subject of survival, this is a valuable addition to their library.
    Rating: 5 / 5

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