| View Larger Image | How to Survive Anywhere: A Guide for Urban, Suburban, Rural, And Wilderness Environments | Paperbackby Christopher Nyerges (Author)
| List Price: | $19.95 | | Price: | $13.57 | | You Save: | $6.38 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Stackpole Books | | Page Count: | 264 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 30, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 15,760th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
This 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 wants to live more independently from modern systems, for a few days or a lifetime. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 11 reviews)
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HOW TO SURVIVE ANYWHERE by Steve (Albany, NY)  5 Stars
October 08, 2009
"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.
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Awesome by T. Slaby 5 Stars
June 28, 2009
This Book is a must have for anyone that is serious about learning survival. IF your in Southern California You should check out his weekend classes as well.
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How to Survive Anywhere by Sam Adams (Minnesota. USA)  3 Stars
May 01, 2009
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.
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Awesome book by G. Smith (Baltimore, MD USA) 5 Stars
March 15, 2009
This is a great book for anyone with an interest in survival. The author does a great job making it readable to anyone. Lots of great tips that can be used in just about any environment.
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How to Survive Anywhere: A Guide for Urban, Suburban, Rural, And Wilderness Environments by Ralph Severe (Dallas Texas)  4 Stars
August 24, 2008
I enjoyed the book, got a few interesting ideas on how to live better in a crisis. Very good book.
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