If society collapses tomorrow, what are the absolute MUST-HAVE books to rebuild civilization from the Stone Age to the Modern Era?
Posted by IloveGreen15@reddit | preppers | View on Reddit | 322 comments
First off, I apologize if a similar scenario or question has been posted before, but I'm trying to put together a very specific, no-nonsense physical library and I'd love your expert input.
Imagine a global cataclysm scenario (war, EMP, total grid down). You are isolated in a mountainous area with a small group of 4 people. You have access to raw natural resources (running water, timber, wild game, raw ores) but absolutely NO electricity, NO modern infrastructure, and NO supply chains.
I am trying to put together the ultimate, no-nonsense physical "Rebuilding Civilization" library. I don't want coffee-table books with pretty pictures; I need hardcore, step-by-step procedural manuals that cover everything from banging rocks together to bootstrapping an industrial micro-grid.
Based on some deep research, here is the foundation of the library so far:
Zero-Level / Primitive:
Primitive Technology by John Plant (for stone axes and clay forges).
Grid-Down Medicine:
The Survival Medicine Handbook (for trauma when you are the end of the line) and Where There Is No Doctor / Dentist (for infectious diseases and public hygiene).
Food & Water Security:
The Encyclopedia of Country Living (for absolute self-sufficiency) , The Resilient Farm and Homestead (for permaculture) , and The Prepper's Water Survival Guide.
Community Infrastructure & Bushcraft:
The Foxfire Series (Appalachian survival skills) and The Village Technology Handbook.
Engineering & Reindustrialization:
The Backyard Foundry (for casting metals) , The Gingery Books (for building a machine shop from scrap) , and The Art of Electronics (for solid-state revival).
My questions for the community:
-
What critical books am I missing?
-
The Missing Link:
I specifically need books that bridge the gap between "making a stone axe" and "casting aluminum." If I only have rocks and raw iron ore, what are the best historical manuals for building a bloomery, smelting raw ore into iron/steel, and basic blacksmithing from scratch?
- Chemistry & Botany:
Are there any comprehensive, practical guides on creating essential chemistry (acids, soap, basic anesthetics/antibiotics) from pure nature?
I want to avoid sci-fi speculation. I'm looking for tested, empirical knowledge. What are your top recommendations?
Whole-Doughnut2022@reddit
THE MACHINISTS HANDBOOK. If you could find an old lathe and get it powered, you would be able to make another lathe. It is a self replicating machine, and you could build practically anything made from metal.
nostrademons@reddit
Something a lot of preppers miss but Hollywood largely gets right: any post-apocalyptic society is going to be largely a scavenging economy. We’ve already dug a whole bunch of ore out of the ground and refined it into useful things. People die much quicker than buildings fall down and things disintegrate, so we’re going to have a relatively small population of survivors living in the ruins of a much larger former empire.
This has a lot of implications for the type of technological knowledge that will be useful. Instead of figuring out how to restart semiconductor production from scratch, it’d be more useful to collect datasheets on the little microcontrollers that are in pregnancy tests and anti-shoplifting devices and hotel card readers so you can just loot a hotel or department store and end up with 1000 computers. It’s worth figuring out software that can give some semblance of an Internet on this sort of hardware. It’s worth understanding how the electrical grid works and how to work safely with electricity so you can scavenge copper wire from parts of the grid that are down and use it to bring electricity back to populated areas. It’s worth learning how to recycle and remold scavenged metals into new forms, or melt down plastic and injection-mold it again.
TacTurtle@reddit
Knowing how to diy a wood gasifier will probably be more useful than programing.
Chemistry and metallurgy will also probably be more useful than programing as well.
CupcakeDependent5119@reddit
that's how we lots the fancy anti-gravity technology last time...
nostrademons@reddit
The advantage of programming is that it provides an easy way to store and transmit all the other knowledge that you need. So yes, in and of itself knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy is more useful than programming. But programming is the meta-skill that will let you preserve, store, distribute, and teach that knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy. That’s why knowledge of programming, electronics, and electricity is so fundamental, and why you would want to have it preserved and bootstrapped early. It’s an accelerant for getting all the other fields of technology rebooted quickly.
David_C5@reddit
That isn't happening unless you find a way to power your computers.
nostrademons@reddit
Solar panels. Every other house in my neighborhood has solar.
David_C5@reddit
If you are living in the city in a time where there's no grid electricity, you are screwed and have a small chance to live. Everyone will think the same as you do.
Grocery stores are stocked in average every 3 days. You are talking about them running out. Gas stations are pumped by electrical sources. You are talking mass amounts of people for days without hunger, possibly even without water!
nostrademons@reddit
You are repeating an image that you’ve heard that bears littler resemblance to my reality.
Where I’m at, in a relatively affluent suburb of the Bay Area, every other home has solar. It’s mandatory on new construction. 50% of new cars bought are EVs. Whole-home batteries are pretty common, and folks are starting to get V2H charging. I know 2 people who bought Cybertrucks not because they’re good cars (they aren’t), but because they have the battery capacity of 13 PowerWalls yet are cheaper than buying the batteries at retail, they give V2H charging out of the box if you have an existing Tesla solar system, and most of the workplaces offer free EV charging, so they charge up at work and drive their electricity home to power their house at night.
We get 3-4 power outages per year because our electric company sucks and has a knack for burning down whole cities. For me at least, getting solar has nice environmental benefits, but the real point was to insulate myself from the greed and incompetence of PG&E. It’s regular practice for a grid-down scenario. Usually our first indication of a power outage is that a neighbor texts “is your power out too” and we’re like “no, we’ve got a PowerWall, come on over if you want to charge your phones”. A lot of this sub will say that if you have solar when your neighbors don’t, they’re gonna come with their guns and break into your home. Well no, not if every other house has solar and you know them all and you invite them over for burgers.
David_C5@reddit
You should read what happened to Israel between 67-70AD when it collapsed. Loss of electricity to a society that is as dependent on electricity as we are will almost result in that bad of a mayhem.
That's why the first prep work is getting out of a city and into a rural area, because every house not too far away from the main town is going to be raided for materials and food.
A Deagel report for 2025 was reporting 75% decline in population for UK and 65% for USA. The site had three-letter agency and military connections from numerous countries. The fact that they had that kind of projection was really troubling.
TacTurtle@reddit
Unnecessary compared to mechanically simpler alternatives like gelatin hectograph or mimeograph, and you don't need programming for simple shortwave CW (morse) or even voice transmission.
DeafHeretic@reddit
Most wood gasifiers result in acidic gas that eats ICE components and the ICE still requires petroleum lubricants. We would be better off creating fuel from plant oils to run in modified diesel engines.
Foreign-Cookie-2871@reddit
Yeah I think I will deal with horses instead of trying to deal with that.
Without a society forcing me to have a car or move long distances, there is no need for the fastness of a car either.
Since I don't have to feed hundreds alone, I don't need an industrial agriculture setup either
No-Needleworker8947@reddit
Or a bicycle?
Wordpad25@reddit
You could also say you would rather have a private jet than fly commercial. Well, of course.
Horses are expensive to purchase and maintain.
TacTurtle@reddit
Horses are a massive pain in the ass, and require substantial feed... like 5-7 tons of hay and grain per year (~50lb-70lbs per day)
DeafHeretic@reddit
Mules would be better; more stamina/strength, healthier and more agile.
But animals require a lot of animal husbandry - you can’t just ignore them for days on end, you have to feed and care for them.
Machines on the other hand can be ignored for months without harm (if properly stored).
If some human in your family has a heart attack/stroke or is seriously injured, you may need to get them medical care within minutes.
TacTurtle@reddit
You can lubricate ICEs with peanut or vegetable oil, not just petroleum.
DeafHeretic@reddit
Yeah - you do that. I’ll pass.
https://shiftychevre.com/can-you-use-vegetable-oil-as-a-lube/
TacTurtle@reddit
Cool, doesn't matter nearly as much for <20HP air cooled engines like those used for the majority of utility tasks... think lawnmower or gokart or chainsaw engines, not modern car engines.
DeafHeretic@reddit
Not going to be mowing my lawn, and chainsaws are mostly 2Stroke, so you mix the with the gas, not the crankcase.
TacTurtle@reddit
Biodiesel and vegetable oil generally require fertilizer and industrial for useful yield-vs-input, a simple 2 or 4 stroke will run just fine on wood gasifier.
Wood gasifiers are also much easier to add low-tech prefilters to such as cyclone separator air filters, condensing stages to reduce tar / water content, and using crushed charcoal as a final filter stage.
There is a reason wood gasifiers were popular during and immediately after WW2 in Europe.
NoContext5149@reddit
I agree, but all these skills you guys are talking about are extremely complex. If you’re not already working in a technically focused career field, then you’re not learning metallurgy in some post-apocalyptic scenario.
People should have modest and realistic expectations about what they bring to the table and what they can be expected to accomplish.
TacTurtle@reddit
You can get basic steel metallurgy and heat treating from a good knifemaking book, and learn to read material properties from a reference book by reading an entry level material science book.
NoContext5149@reddit
This is actually exactly my point. An entry level material science book, if you even had one, gives you next to nothing you can apply in practice. Heat treating knives is like the most basic application of metallurgy, and knowing “metallurgy” isn’t even necessary to perform basic tasks like that.
Skimming the FEMA document - they gloss over brazing metal, manufacturing custom plumbing fittings, and all the mechanical aspects of connecting the gassifier to an engine.
Have you made a gassifier only using that document? Consulting no other references? Not having access to order or buy tools and parts? The original post is talking about compiling references documents to use sometime in the future… if you’re not doing this stuff now, these documents are next to useless in some hypothetical post-apocalyptic scenario.
TacTurtle@reddit
If you cannot figure out how to connect a tube to another tube going into a carburetor, no amount of book learning will aid your lack of basic sense and utter mechanical ineptitude.
NoContext5149@reddit
Hey look, it seems like you almost understand my point!
TacTurtle@reddit
Oh look, you don't know how to learn from a book!
ciresemik@reddit
I've never worked on a vehicle before in my life and I'm using a Chiltons to fix up a 78 Jeep Cherokee. I was going to check it out at my local library and they said I could have it because no one had checked it out in over 10 years. Working on the engine hasn't been too bad, but I'm trying to get up the nerve to out in a new wiring harness.
Artemis_SpawnOfZeus@reddit
You can literally make a wood gasifier from dirt and straw if you have to. It's not a complicated build, it's just one that you don't want to be near when it's running. Take a deep breath before you turn it on and take 3 steps away once its running. Same process but rationally backwards for turning it off.
AdministrationOk1083@reddit
What do I need a gasifier for? There's electric cars and solar panels everywhere. Wood for heat
TacTurtle@reddit
Can you make an electric car or solar panel?
AdministrationOk1083@reddit
Shortly after some massive catastrophic event most of the people will likely be dead from starvation. There are thousands of panels and hundreds of cars nearby
TacTurtle@reddit
And you think that those thousands of starving people will leave everything intact over the 1 year or more it will take to starve?
Wordpad25@reddit
You severely underestimate the value of spreadsheets. Every single business of every type and size at every point in human history struggled without it which is way more demand than wood gasifier.
And at community level, logistics keeps people alive through the winter and wins wars.
Not to mention all other things computers can do which people take for granted, like accurately track what season it is which is super hard to do otherwise.
Then there is also navigation on land and sea, secure long distance communication all vastly more strategically valuable.
Computers are everywhere now not just for fun, they are an extreme productivity multiplier.
DevelopmentLucky4853@reddit
As a long time data nerd for various telecoms and SaaS conglomerates i can confidently say everyone i know who doesnt use spreadsheets would be appalled at how many business critical processes of multinational corporations hings on someone updating an excel spreadsheet they dont fully understand how it works because some neckbeard whp used to work there migrated all the companys records to it back in the day before they fired him.
PHealthy@reddit
Guess what is the oldest form of writing we've ever discovered.
DevelopmentLucky4853@reddit
Isnt it literally like a spreadsheet but in cuneiform tablets for transactions of some metal or grain?
ULTRAFORCE@reddit
The most famous clay tablet that's very old is from 1750 where it's a complaint to Ea-nasir who allegedly sold sub-standard copper to a customer Nanni.
We have some older writings some of which have been deciphered and some of which haven't. The oldest cuneiform tablets we have now are a piece of wisdom literature with text having sayings of morals and informing such as "You should not locate a field on a road," or "You should not play around with a married young woman".
The later Ebla tablets which are 2500 BC to 2250 BC have a variety of things but include a lot of economic records, and inventories of commercial and political relations with other cities.
PHealthy@reddit
Proto-cuneiform is also thought to be a listing language. Basically 5000 year old SQL
ULTRAFORCE@reddit
Really I think it's easy to say when you get beyond a family unit of two generations, logistics become something important and something that is not completely reasonable to rely solely on memorization to keep track of.
JamesRawles@reddit
Per my last tablet, your copper falls below our expectations. Lets circle back in a few days.
glittr_grl@reddit
R/reallyshittycopper
JamesRawles@reddit
Didn't know the City Wok guy got into the copper business.
TacTurtle@reddit
Spreadsheets existed before computers.
summonsays@reddit
As a software developer, I entirely agree. In any apocalypse scenario my career is over. You know what the micro controller of a pregnancy test has in common with anti shoplifting devices? Yeah me neither. I can guess but that's about it. And my guess is they're probably using a form of BASIC, low level programming language, that I learned in college and is a pain in the ass to make let alone test and implement. They also probably have different languages as low level languages are hardware dependent.
And if we're truly ground zero, like an EMP or something else that's fried everything. My guess is 20 years as the fastest we could get back to massive room sized computers with less power than a greeting card. And we're going to have a lot of other priorities, like trying to survive, to worry about.
Foreign-Cookie-2871@reddit
No recent module is using basic.
That stuff is all programmed in C or similar, arduino style, and on the module itself there is only its assembly.
They don't have enough computing power to be interpreting basic (or any other programming language)
whatisevenrealnow@reddit
Wouldn't something like a Carrington Event fry all of that?
nostrademons@reddit
Maybe, but in terms of threat models I’m far more worried about garden variety war, social unrest, supply chain collapse, and just people not giving a shit than a Carrington Event.
RespectAllTrustNo1@reddit
I feel like we generally underutilize lessons from global examples of countries or areas that have faced collapse.
If you’re worried about invasion by a foreign or domestic power, look to Ukraine or Palestine.
If you’re worried about climate disasters, look at Puerto Rico or Pakistan.
One that people have been worried about lately is a lack of oil and global trade due to a war with Iran. And we happen to have a very contemporary example in Cuba right now.
We spend a lot of time speculating when we can look at real world examples. There are examples happening right now of what happens when your society collapses.
electronDog@reddit
firmware engineer here and the best guy to assemble what your talking about. Your proposal isn’t wrong and is quite insightful but if the apocalypse happened and I was there, hell to the no I wouldn’t want anything to do with this. That is incredibly complex and when your done humans would just build back up to create the next apocalypse.
nostrademons@reddit
I mean, it's probably the easiest step toward getting mechanized tractors again vs. starving because there aren't enough people to work the fields. If you're doing it to avoid death vs. doing it to avoid boredom, does that change the equation?
electronDog@reddit
Native Americans did just fine without tractors.
nostrademons@reddit
The total population of North America at the time of European colonization was roughly 5 million, so be prepared for roughly 98% of people to die then.
electronDog@reddit
It wouldn’t be terrible if the Native Americans were the only ones left in the states. Over centuries The white man has shown how they are an accomplished expert at genocide…not the most admirable human skillset.
nostrademons@reddit
I think the point is that it wouldn't be the Native Americans who are the only ones left - it'd be the top 2% of the most genocidal white (and other) settlers, who would then be forced to live like Native Americans because they lack the manpower to do otherwise.
forogtten_taco@reddit
Im sorry, walk me through building the internet from pregnancy tests. You lost me
nostrademons@reddit
You can run Doom on a pregnancy test. The guy even hooked up a wireless keyboard for it. From there it's a relative straight shot to a wi-fi router and Wikipedia.
calvinshobbss@reddit
Step 1: Collect pregnancy tests Step 2: ... Step 3: Turn on the Internet
JRHLowdown3@reddit
LOL +1
JRHLowdown3@reddit
If you pee on the keyboard and your not prego it brings you to an post apoc internet dating site featuring non mutants. If you pee on the keyboard and you are prego, it brings up Babies R Us website for convenient diaper ordering. Just because the world is gone, doesn't mean Bill Gates won't be tracking you on the net!!
Just don't pee on the mouse however, it's kinda like the History Eraser button, we don't know what will happen... Maaaybe something bad..... maaaybe something good. We will never know cause we won't pee on the mouse!
Beauregard42@reddit
I've got 4kb of ram and a 6507 microprocessor just waiting to be built into a computer : )
agent_flounder@reddit
Nice. 6809 over here. I hope we have enough breadboards and jumper wires stocked up. :)
Lumpy_Strawberry_154@reddit
I worked for a retail store that sells electronics, components, wiring, etc. Any single component ever manufactured is available in this store. Many old used boards from the 90s and back. Tons of used stuff from trade ins. Hundreds of breadboards. Old transistors.
I'll need to start making regular visits to this store. I'm never surprised with the random treasures found here on the regular.
agent_flounder@reddit
That store would be so dangerous to my wallet. And marriage lol. Sort of sounds like BG Micro. I guess the owner passed and it shut down. :( Sure was fun to browse that website back in the day.
SpiritualHiker@reddit
https://collapseos.org/
https://duskos.org/
agent_flounder@reddit
Welp, I didn't need to get anything done today. Thanks for the rabbit holes (I think?)
SpiritualHiker@reddit
No problem agent, happy to help the alphabet squad.
Wild_Candle5025@reddit
Lewis Dartnell's "The knowledge" takes this into account.
Autobotnate@reddit
This blew my mind.
Mechbear2000@reddit
Bingo
Eurogal2023@reddit
Your list is quite good, but I suggest adding the biggest illustrated encyclopedia you can find. Also look into getting hold of diy books for whatever, including books like knitting/crocheting /sewing for dummies and so on.
BelligerentWyvern@reddit
Largely true in history too. It took about 200-500 years for post-Western Roman society to scavenge what was left of the cities left of the provinces of the Roman Empire, especially the further out you got like Britain. And there was not nearly as a strong depopulation as a societal collapse today would be.
TheMostDivineOne@reddit
What is your profile picture from?
BelligerentWyvern@reddit
It's the Laughing Man symbol from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
SpeciousSophist@reddit
One of the best of all time!!
whatisevenrealnow@reddit
Needles, thread, crochet hooks and yarn are some of my preps. Buttons. Zippers. Some basic leather working tools like an awl. Takes up so little space but could be pretty useful.
nostrademons@reddit
You can download Wikipedia for free, and doing so is usually a starting exercise at r/DataHoarder. It’s several orders of magnitude bigger than Brittanica. Just have to keep a computer running and you have information available to you that was unheard of 30 years ago.
HecticGoldenOrb@reddit
Seconding this with a recommendation to check out kiwix.org and their library of zims. One of which is Wikipedia. But they also have the Survivor Library, Gutenberg and Ted Talks among other things.
TheMostDivineOne@reddit
What other websites and programs are like this that would be able to be ran on a computer and contain tons of info? I mainly just want it for camping I don't really believe civilization is gonna collapse lol.
HecticGoldenOrb@reddit
zim and warc file formats are coming in to their own recently. You can create your own via a few different software options. Think browsertrix is the name of one of them, but there's several out there. If you create a zim file, it will work in the kiwix software the same way their posted library of zims will.
Lets-B-Lets-B-Jolly@reddit
I remember an awesome kids' (Childcraft maybe) encyclopedia set I inherited from an older family member. It was filled with lots of basic instructions on how to do woodworking, dressmaking, gardening, card games, raising animals, building basic machines, etc...) i would read through it for hours as a kid. It also had volumes of folklore and fairy tales.
I wish I knew what happened to it. My own kids have some separate books with similar info, but the surprising part was how competent and mature this book assumed children reading it were. I'm gueasing it was from the 1920-1940's?
Eurogal2023@reddit
Sounds like a perfect book for "prepper kids"!
I dream of the day when these things get taught in school (again).
Lets-B-Lets-B-Jolly@reddit
I'm a retired teacher. The only way that public school kids will be taught anything meaningful again? Standardized testing needs to be removed. Right now, most teachers spend 75% of the school year preparing students for testing. Reading levels have plummeted in the past 50 years.
Someone needs to come up with a "garden school" that focuses on homesteading skills and self-sufficiency. If states are going to fund private and charter schools, then someone needs to build a curriculum and start a school like this!
sterrecat@reddit
You want a book on weaving. Knit is nice, good for short term warm layers and easy to learn. But long term you want weaving skills.
Lets-B-Lets-B-Jolly@reddit
Got a weaving loom for my kids recently that is a large size and surprisingly sturdy. Not perfect but it is the size of a standing easal and a good activity to build manual dexterity and patience.
Eurogal2023@reddit
Absolutely agree, was skipping many steps, like where to get your wool or fibers for weaving at all.
Getting into either keeping sheep, goats, growing hemp, linen or cotton and so on is of course pretty sensible unless you have an endless supply of fanrics or yarn.
androgenoide@reddit
I would recommend an old 11th edition Britannica as far as encyclopedias go. It was the last that had technical articles written by experts in their fields.
Eurogal2023@reddit
Great info!
BeebleBoxn@reddit
I have an entire collection I want to get rid of.
unicorn-paid-artist@reddit
Books on first aid and physical therapy
DimensionNo9609@reddit
Every Thing about Hunting and Gathering/Foraging would be useful and Farming with Animal wich are relatively easy to handle like Goat and Sheep and Cows…
So older Books probably pre 1900 about this, so my Guess would be most helpful, maybe one can Get books like that in Learning Institutions…
DeafHeretic@reddit
Not a probable “what-if” scenario
Even IF (and that is a hugely improbable if) everything “modern” disappeared overnight knowledge would still be present - a LOT of knowledge exists in people’s minds and life experience. Worst case scenario we would revert to steam age industrial technology.
Unless by magic, ALL remnants of current technology were removed from the earth, there would at least still be refined metal to be scavenged; steel, copper, aluminum, iron - all high quality, and most it already in a useful form; pipes/tubing, wire (both electrical and cabling/rope), structural forms, sheet metal. Glass, fiberglass, sheet polymers, plastic tubing for plumbing. I could go on and on.
There would be machines and machinery components. There would even be fuel to be had.
David_C5@reddit
Now, how do you supposed you scavenge them in any way but the most crude form possible with no basic energy?
Think about it, most of the "modern knowledge" is useless in that society. It's so high level up it might as well be irrelevant.
And most of the higher level knowledge people will be doing hard labor just to keep them and their family living.
DeafHeretic@reddit
There is a LOT of refined metals that can be scavenged by simply by hand. Ask any tweaker.
They can then either be used in the current form, as they are (pipes, wire, extruded/forged/etc. form, etc.).
A lot of scrap can be also be forged or cast with a homemade forge/furnace made from brick/sand/etc. and powered with charcoal or even wood and bellows.
Ubockinme@reddit
Screw all that. If by magic…. Then I’m gonna be a magic wizard, get all the D&D How to be a wizard books, surround my self with a hoard of dragons and start to build an empire.
SavageThinker@reddit
The biggest problem is not immediately learning to smelt iron ore or build a lathe to start rebooting all other tools from scratch. You'll have tools and materials to reclaim.
The biggest issue is that you'll have grand children who don't know how anything is made, but just that you go out and find a fast-shrinking supply of magical stuff that cannot ever be made again. How do you make a solar panel or a radio if you can't find one? You need to first understand Maxwell's equations and that the radio wave is light and that a semiconductor can create a logic gate or facilitate the photoelectric effect. And to understand Maxwell, you need to know calculus and trigonometry.
In short, you can't skip the basic (and advanced) science education infrastructure in any way, if you want your grandchildren to avoid slipping backwards into the dark ages after all our junk decays beyond repair.
David_C5@reddit
You are forgetting the lower level stuff. Things like smelting and metallurgy ENABLES things like modern semiconductor technology to happen. They are PINNACLE of human development. No one is developing them from scratch.
There's so much specialization that there's no one person in the world that can reliably create anything like that from scratch. Your best hope is have those already, and keep them maintained and last as long as possible.
SavageThinker@reddit
Nope, I'm not forgetting it. In fact I'm making basically the same point. You need to educate an entire generation on diverse topics so they can go out and specialize in their various areas and keep society going. I'm not suggesting that one person will read the right set of books to do it all in their own...
StillShoddy628@reddit
Realistically the nucleus of modern society is hundreds of thousands or even millions of people with carefully selected skill sets, and even then you’re still not going to be able to just “recover” and build something new before those people die without working equipment and infrastructure.
Target sustained wilderness survival and basic agriculture, followed by being handy around vehicles and construction sites to help with scavenging and repairing/maintaining any tech you do find. If it’s only 4 people that’s where it ends. If you have enough survivors to repopulate then you can start thinking about education and accelerating advancement in the future, but advancement is measured in generations as we rediscover what was lost.
David_C5@reddit
Yea, and it's likely most of those specialized skill set people that will die first, being in the most populated and targetted cities.
Swimmer7777@reddit
Something that explains how to make antibiotics and stresses the need for disinfection and proper human and animal waste disposal. Water purification too. By extending lifespans you keep more knowledge available. Great post.
David_C5@reddit
Bio waste disposal is easy. You dig a hole in the ground.... and then bury it. That's ancient knowledge, also in the Old Testament, part of the law given to Israelites.
In such a scenario the first thing is to reduce injuries. So you have to be alert, not take any drugs, inebriated, and work with determination and purpose. And be properly fueled up, meaning eat and sleep well.
Add hygiene to the above by cleaning your hands, utensils, and food with clean water and you solve 99% of the issues.
androgenoide@reddit
I saw a guy on YouTube cultivate and extract penicillin. It looked simple enough and I found the website where you could buy the high yield culture but... In its natural form it's injectable rather than oral and about 10% of the population is allergic to it and could die from the reaction if you didn't have adrenaline on hand. The discovery of antibiotics was great but wouldn't have been helpful if they hadn't already had a way to deal with the possible side effects.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Please post a link.
I have an older kids chemistry book somewhere in the abyss of thousands of books that showed a similar thing using an orange and an old moldy piece of bread. Can't find the book now but I know I didn't sell it. 1950's ish' kids book.
Iartdaily@reddit
lol I read your posts and think- if I wasn’t old and broken down I would come find you and whisk you away because I think you’re my soul mate 😂😂😂just the book collection alone has me covered in goosebumps.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
LOL, your sweet, thank you!
androgenoide@reddit
I think this was the video I saw..there are others. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOrRQtA8BsY I don't know where I found the link to the company that sells the culture but I think there was a note saying that the high yield variety was only available to schools.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Awesome, thank you!
Swimmer7777@reddit
Good info. Yea, it was a huge discovery. I guess for me if I had to bug out, besides a gun and water, I’d want antibiotics.
NoContext5149@reddit
My problem with all these types of posts is that reference books targeted to preppers usually suck. So many of these types of books a mile wide and an inch deep on any subject, making them useless for any practical purpose other than skimming through making people feel like they can read them if they ever need them and it will make them competent in some subject.
You can’t just buy some book on a complicated topic like electronics/blacksmithing/metallurgy/etc. and expect it to be of any value. First aid books are okay, things like canning manuals or some focused references are okay too, but these are the exception.
For most topics, if you’re not actively practicing the skill you might as well forget learning it from some little book it in a post apocalyptic scenario.
Private_Mandella@reddit
At a minimum you’d need a large group of experts who have the knowledge to recreate the core aspects of our civilization. Maybe they could help train people. Maybe they could create basic educational materials for their students to reference later in their careers.
Every time I try to think this through I always end up concluding you probably need to recreate something like a university. Modern civilization is so complex and requires thousands of professions, trades, and services to run.
agent_flounder@reddit
It is easy to forget just how insanely broad and deep the sum of human knowledge is.
When you think about it, even the simplest appliance, like a toaster, would require vast knowledge and skill to produce from scratch.
Just the power cord requires all the knowledge to mine, refine, and form copper into stranded wire, to day nothing of the production of safe insulation material, forming plug prongs.
The toaster itself requires special materials (I think?) for the heating element (I'm not even sure what...), plastics and metals, sheet metal forming, etc, etc.
Now imagine how much more complex a refrigerator is and how many more areas of expertise are required.
If we can't build refrigerators we have to fall back on older technology: root cellars, canning, and other means of food preservation.
David_C5@reddit
It takes materials from FOUR countries to create a simple pencil!
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Good post.
Yeah, pretty much any book with "prepper" in the title is going to be shittake... Wasted a ton of money on reviewing them on the net over the years. Some of the old skewl books from when we were called (rightly) "Survivalists" like "Live off the land in the city and country", "tappan on survival" , any of the old Kurt Saxon, Ragnar Benson books- this was back when you actually had to know the material to get published, not just self published through amazon after reading some other garbage material online...
True on the just owning the books- or worst yet the computer file- of something and think you know the material. Often times on simple subjects/tasks just the book knowledge can get you STARTED, but it's the experience from doing it again and again and refining it is what is valuable. That is EXPERIENCE, which is different from simply INFORMATION.
On quite a few books I've made notes in the material- "used such and such instead and it worked better", "in our climate these can usually be started around mid march" etc. Both for my reference later but also for the family and like minded friends if they need to reference it. Some books I won't write in for various reasons- they are now "banned" or unobtainable books worth quite a bit of money (a tracking book put out by Paladin in the 90's that was maybe $25. then sells for over $300. now when you can find one). These often have a small post it note inside- "book worth such and such as of 2025". Doubtful they will ever be sold, but hate to have some grand kid toss them out one day when he could get some bucks for them. Further some of the ones let's just say "no longer available" you wouldn't want to make notes in, in the same manner you shouldn't mark a map.
When you have just have the books or worse yet the computer files, you just have the INFORMATION.
When you have the information and you've done it once or twice you have some KNOWLEDGE.
When you have the knowledge and have done it quite a bit, you have the EXPERIENCE.
We can think we know, or we can KNOW.
Level_Ad3785@reddit
I wonder if it’s important to collect non-survival but highly educational books to make sure knowledge doesn’t get lost?
Iartdaily@reddit
After reading this i have decided to donate most of my stored food I don’t want to live through anything more than a short term “discomfort”. Like covid. The words “scavenger society” made me realize at my age and the densely populated area where I live are big factors in my inability to prepare. In a big time SHTF scenario I guess I’m walking towards the shit.
EPSILON_737@reddit
wow i was just gonna ask about a smilier scenario, your least is helpful
Sure-Let5553@reddit
I actually spent the last 6 months building something around this exact problem.
When I started prepping more seriously I ran into the same issue you’re describing. there are hundreds of amazing books, but when you’re under pressure or trying to learn quickly, flipping through 300+ PDFs looking for the right answer isn’t practical.
If you’re trying to rebuild things from scratch, the knowledge you need spans a ridiculous number of areas:
• water purification • growing food • medicine • metalworking • shelter building • preserving food • animal husbandry • navigation • emergency medicine
And every one of those subjects lives in different books written decades apart!!!!
So I built an offline survival knowledge base that indexes hundreds of survival and preparedness manuals and lets you query them locally with an AI model. No internet required.
The goal wasn’t “AI answers everything”. The goal was rapid access to the right knowledge when it matters.
Example situation………,You don’t remember the exact method for building a rocket stove or purifying water from a questionable source.
Instead of digging through 20 books, you can ask:
“How do I build a rocket stove from basic materials?”
And it pulls answers directly from the manuals and shows the source.
Everything runs completely offline on a small local system, because if you’re actually preparing for grid-down scenarios the internet is the first thing gone.
It ended up indexing 350+ survival books and about 17,000 passages across things like:
• bushcraft • medical care • agriculture • food storage • water systems • communications • shelter building
I built it mostly because I kept asking myself the same question you posted. If everything disappeared tomorrow, how would we actually rebuild the basics?
I’m hoping none of us ever need it but you have to a plan for Plan B.
PinBucket@reddit
De Re Metallica ("On the Nature of Metals") by Georgius Agricola
It's a German mining and metallurgy technology book from 1566. The equipment shown was buildable in 1566.
Along that same vein, engineering and metallurgy text books from around 1890-1950. The pre-computer books are more useful if you don't have computers.
PinBucket@reddit
Also, books and technical manuals on petroleum extraction, processing, and refining from the 1930s-1960s. In the right parts of the country, oil and natural gas will still exist and pump jacks would still work. Really old equipment is still sitting in fields throughout the middle of nowhere in Texas and Oklahoma, possibly able to be repaired.
Other tech: hit and miss engines, diesel engines, boiler making, weight based pressure relief valves, spring making, naval architecture (1800-1950), well drilling, farming, animal husbandry
nheckaboom_69@reddit
.
x_Lotus_x@reddit
Just had an ADHD binge for how to make steel if you were tossed way back in time.
Look up Ram Pumps, water pumps that can take a large amount of falling water (it can be <10') and turn it into a small amount much much higher up with just pressure.
Tromp compressor. You can get a low psi air compressor (<50 psi) using falling water (20'-300') using a very similar principle. This can also be used as an air pump for mines or a bellows for a furnace or a low level air compressor for doing the Bessemer process to get wrought iron (almost 0% carbon) which you want if you want to make steel.
zero-protocol-67@reddit
Two gaps I notice in your list:
For the bridge between stone tools and metal casting "The Backyard Blacksmith" by Lorelei Sims is more accessible than the Gingery series as a starting point. Pair it with "The Complete Modern Blacksmith" by Alexander Weygers which was written specifically for people rebuilding from minimal infrastructure. For chemistry from scratch "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" by Tenney Davis is dry but thorough on producing basic chemicals from raw materials. For soap, acids and fermentation "The Foxfire Book of Simple Living" covers it better than most dedicated chemistry manuals because it was documented from people who actually did it without infrastructure.
One category missing entirely from your list: communication and knowledge preservation. "The Art of Memory" by Frances Yates and a basic printing manual because rebuilding civilization without a way to duplicate and distribute knowledge is the actual bottleneck, not the metallurgy.
agent_mick@reddit
idk how interested you are in AI responses but I used claude to put together a tiered list a few weeks ago. i don't want to spam you with AI stuff tho, so let me know if you're interested
Every_Procedure_4171@reddit
I've been looking into this too. I think post-collapse will be like living in the 1800s and we should have the skills for that. If these techniques are not available in modern books, I wonder if books from that time have the information.
harbourhunter@reddit
Someone asks this about every other week
There a book on this, written for this exact reason
If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible?
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Just pushed my way through finishing that not long ago.... Mile wide and an inch deep. 30,000 feet view of the situation. It's very clear the author has done none of this stuff, literally states he lives in a 600 sq. ft apartment in London.... He's not out living this stuff.
The_Latverian@reddit
Lewis Dartnell
https://www.indigo.ca/en-ca/the-knowledge-how-to-rebuild-civilization-in-the-aftermath-of-a-cataclysm/ed7434cb-a67f-368b-8747-adab0dc75c87.html
Spiley_spile@reddit
People have shared some great suggestions. I would add to them, "A Psalm for the Wild Built." and "A Prayer for the Crown Shy". Both books are by By Becky Chambers.
The first book introduces a chronically depressed tea monk named Dex, and a sentient robot named Mosscap. The setting is a post-apocalyptic-recovered world. Eager not to recreate the social and economic conditions that had nearly succeeded in anihilating the human race, things arent exactly as they were before.
The sequal still follows Dex and Mosscap, while focusing this time on the economic system that allows the recovered world to function the way it does.
So often, post-apocalyptic books focus on either the moment the world completely falls apart, or a dystopian world order that magnifies the sins of the past. This book goes ...a different route: Fast forward and people have chosen not to lean into dispair. They've taken ownership of the failures of the past, and rejected a return to the same "normal" that had destroyed itself.
As an aside, I really appreciated the whole: chronic depression-meets-post-apocalyptic-utopia(ish) thing.
Spiley_spile@reddit
Yeah, I see the downvotes. My prepping bookshelf is full of books on local plant and animal identification, fermentation, principals of architecture, conflict management, linguistics, semiotics, sociology, social psychology, philosophy, medical skills, grammar guides for various languages, disaster animal sheltering, ham radio, history, various religious texts, tools and their uses, and yes several works of fiction The two I mentioned, World War Z, Watership Down, and some others.
The inclusion of fiction in my curation for prepping, including Becky Chambers' books, is likely to make much more sense to people familiar with Walter Fisher's "Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action." But Fisher isnt exactly book club material. And I get that.
Spiley_spile@reddit
Circling back, as promised. I recommend the following more as "books from categories that shouldnt be left out". Id need to read a lot more before knowing how they compare.
Medical knowledge will be important. Before, during, and after we rebuild, we have to help each other survive.
First aid is helpful. But when you need advanced wound care, you need advanced wound care. So it'd be handy to have a copy of the latest edition of the book, Wound Care Essentials: Practice Principles. by Sharon Baranoski and Elizabeth A. Ayello.
Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof and Tonya Olsen is handy (footy?). Knowing how to prevent and treat foot injuries, vital.
A lot of folks have recommended the Hesperian Medical Guides. Ive just gotten a copy of Where There Are No Doctors, and the Book for Midwives. I start reading them tomo. (Only 4 survivors?? If the incest coefficient doesnt extinct us, the high pregnancy/birth mortality probably will. Midwifery'd be a worthy skill to build.)
Ive a book on 7,000 medical abbreviations. Probably a handy reference if survivors ever leave the wilderness and scrounge up more medical texts.
Speaking of heading back into cities, hazardous materials are going to be hard to avoid. From Industrial plants all the way down to nearly every home. (People store chemicals near each other that they shouldnt. Containers spill, get broken, and the materials weaken and leak.) All Ive personally got on hand for that is a 2024 copy of the ERG and the app that goes with it. A full hazmat certification course would be far better.
Reader's Digest has a "Book of Skills and Tools". It's big, hardcover, and fantastic. I didnt know a lot of those tools existed and wouldnt have guessed what they were for before I got this book. It teaches how to use them too.
The Art of Construction: Projects and Principals for Beginning Engineers and Architects, by Mario Salvadori. 100% recommend this book.
I dont think I have it anymore, but used to have a book on building straw bale houses. Easy material to come by. Very sturdy homes. Supposedly hold up well against earthquakes.
For foraging, books specific to where you're located are best. The more specific the better. I spent most of my life in Oregon. Unless the 4 survivors are holed up in Oregon, might not be a relevant location. If anyone would like a list of the books though, let me know.
I recommend the 4 survivors learn Sign Language if they don't already know it. Most hearing people will become hard of hearing or deaf if they live long enough. And hearing people give birth to deaf/hh kids all the time. Not to mention, Sign Language is also fantastic for stealthy communication, non-electronic communication across distances (with binoculars), and communicating under water. (Are these 4 survivors near the coast? itll be handy for underwater foraging and spear fishing.) Ive got a few ASL books on my shelf. Im a big fan.
If it's a world without cheese, Im not sticking around. (kidding.) I recommend the book, Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll.
Ive got a book on fermentation. But the authors pissed me off by comparing autism to a disease. Totally unnecessary in an otherwise recommendable book. So Ill just say, books for how to safely ferment foods will be as essential to survival as medical skills. Fermenting foods not only preserves them but often broadens their nutritional profile.
Where there are people, there will be conflict. Mediation Theory and Practice, by Melanie J. Reese and Suzanne McCorkle Is a place to start.
whatisevenrealnow@reddit
"The Book of Symbols" - it's an amazing documentation of core symbols and motifs which fascinate us as humans, with essays exploring why through psychology, myth, history, literature. If society collapses, I think we should be considering things beyond just survival, but also preservation of our history, and this book is great for that because it identifies key cultural motifs and why they are important.
No_Associate_9743@reddit
Solar
sassysassysarah@reddit
Yeah if we get to this point I'm long since out of the game. I prepare for economic collapse and bad weather events and protests - stuff that's likely to happen in my life. I know for a fact I won't survive if we have to start from 0
ThoughtFox1@reddit
The conquest of Bread by Petar Kropotkin
Historical_Course587@reddit
Rain-on-parade incoming:
Even with great modern support systems, there aren't any backpacking nerds who wander into the wilderness and start crafting shit. Most of their survival medicine is meant to help them last until they get to a modern ER or until help arrives. You don't need to make tools, because existing tools won't break before the best survivors die. The absolute essentials are food, water, and shelter, with fire being a close 4th - strip your library down to the bare essentials needed to secure those.
Just one problem though - collapse of any kind will affect the ecosystem in which your group attempts to survive. Knowing how to hunt or trap or fish won't matter when the US forestry service isn't managing biodiversity and everything dies to inedible invasive species. Zone-based gardening goes to shit when man-made pollution zeroes becuase nobody's done that kind of pre-industrial gardening in centuries.
It's going to be a shitty existence, that requires more adaptability than can be found in a book. Maybe the ecological shifts all work in your favor, and you live a life of wilderness plenty until a hernia gets ya. Maybe your water filtration system isn't filtering the one truly deadly thing in your water supply and you only last a week. Your last paragraph points to it: there is no tested, empirical knowlege for the scenario you describe.
But lets skip past the actual hard part of survival (like your post does) and focus on the rest. You want tradeskills: woodworking, metallurgy and metalworking, tanning and leatherworking, textile manufacturing, shoemaking, animal husbandry, advanced farming techniques, and many many more. It's not easy:
First and foremost, all of these hands-on skillsets have sciences under the hood: math, logic, physics, chemistry, biology, and so on. You can try to ignore all that and focus on what artisans were doing in the middle ages or indigenous tribal folk were getting away with, but most people have never dug into how much of a mess those fields were before The Enlightenment. There will be so many opportunities for something to go wrong, something that matters or keeps people safe, and when that happens emergency field medicine is only going to do so much.
Second, each trade skill is a freaking trade skill. A middle-ages artisan apprenticed under someone who apprenticed under someone else, and so on and so forth, on familiar materials and implements, all day, 6-out-of-7 days a week for decades to achieve what they managed to achieve. And they had that time to focus on their craft because their medieval economy supported them so that they didn't have to be hunter-gatherers in order to not die of starvation. If you're going to take a couple people and spread these jobs around, you will be in hobby mode for the first decade post-SHTF, making useless trinkets that fall apart or injure users or simply don't work well, because every waking moment is going to spent on food/water/shelter/fire first.
If you want to prepare for this, the way isn't books. It's to take your group, assign or select or divy up the knowledge, and then go out right now and learn how to do all of these things. Take classes, go to events, apprentice, practice, and THEN use that knowledge to find the books that can take a bunch of intermediate trainees and make their crafting useful.
mumof5stuff@reddit
This.
mumof5stuff@reddit
Just musing. Why would you have books but not an axe knowing that you are going in the wild ? What happened to good old electrogene groups, solar power and wind turbine ? Because it really looks like sci-fi. What is your field? You trade expertise. The ultimate resource is people. They are the ones writing books, You cannot do it alone. Books from your field would be number one. Do you have kids ? Teaching manuals up to k12. Then they would have to get learning from an expert. Learning how to read books. The most complete dicitonnary you can find. In book form. Weaving Knitting crocheting and sewing, very basic guides. A gardener's handbook. If you want to eat meat you would have to start hunting and fishing now. An encyclopedia of medicinal plants and wild edible food from your specific area. A book specifically on obgyn, anatomy and one child development. A book on law. A Bible. Complete Shakespeare. (i.e. reference book from your culture), To rebuild a world you need to build the minds too. This is what I would add. And critical thinking and games's theory. If we have come this far, something is definitely wrong.
rmesic@reddit
Look at the "Pocket Ref" books by Glover.
Here's the big one:
https://a.co/d/0d01QGne
AccordingCoconut997@reddit
A copy of the CRC and the Bible
KimiMcG@reddit
We aren't going back to the stone age. We would be starting with what's left around us. It's ok to let some reality in.
ILickMetalCans@reddit
Yeah, I always get a good chuckle when this stuff comes up. Its like they want to go back to the stone age. But the reality is that technology would still be everywhere, just waiting for power. The main things to learn would be how solar panels work, how to setup solar with batteries etc. A good understanding of electrics and their board/soldering would probably be invaluable as things will break down and the need to take them apart and fix them would be critical.
KimiMcG@reddit
Retired electrical tech, here. We all thought Y2K was a huge joke mostly sold to idiots who didn't understand how stuff works, to part them from money for zero reason. And there were many well educated folks who just did not want to hear realistic explanations.
Captainfatfoot@reddit
Anything on permaculture design would be valuable for creating an agricultural model that works without the sorts of industrial fertilizers and pesticides we’d lose access to in a collapse scenario.
Scavenging is all well and good early on, but as time goes on we’ll need to grow our own food.
WhereDidAllTheSnowGo@reddit
Pre-school to high-school learn to read books
How to train teachers to teach kids
Dictionary
Set of encyclopedias
Lets-B-Lets-B-Jolly@reddit
Getting various levels of antique or reprinted McGuffy readers would be a good idea as well. As a retired reading teacher, I've been collecting antique children's books and have been surprised at the reading levels in even the upper primary grade readers.
SavageThinker@reddit
Agreed. And to maintain the modern world, you also need college level calc, differential equations, physics (including electrodynamics, thermodynamics, and modern physics), chemistry (including organic and physical chemistry), biology. And then to save a ton of time, you'll want to grab the engineering text books too, even though you could technically derive them from the science books (chemical, mechanical, electrical, and computer)
Joesome5@reddit
The Integral Principles of the Structural Dynamics of Flow by L.G. Claret
We’ll need to know how to get things from A to B with pipes at some point.
NeverJaded21@reddit
the BIBLE
shikkonin@reddit
Why would you waste money and shelf space on something as useless as that?
NeverJaded21@reddit
its life changing!
MegC18@reddit
Depends on your climatic zone. As I’m in England, I’d have John Seymour’s self sufficiency books, Henry Stephens book of the farm ( Victorian farm technology expert), Maud Grieve’s A modern Herbal (growing your own medicine). Henley’s book of formulas, And local geology maps.
For economic reasons, Tobacco Cultivation.
I already have all of these, plus many more on textiles. I would like books on veterinary and human medicine.
I would be well placed to grow my own food, grow and harvest medicine, make textiles, find geological resources (I’m degree qualified), and hopefully be in a position to be a useful asset.
UND_mtnman@reddit
I actually ended up buying one that was recommended in Lucifer's Hammer. The Way Things Work by David Macaulay. Gives a good overview of how many kinds of technology work so you wouldn't have to completely reinvent the wheel...
t3chiman@reddit
Hudson’s Engineer’s Manual. Math, Physics, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, up to 1930 or so.
Goblin-Alchemist@reddit
The main problem I see with this premise is that a modern book will somehow last long enough to help society rebuild, especially when the younger generations are less and less likely to even be able to read those books.
Generational learning will be much more important, build skills, pass those on, etc. An adult today will not be overseeing the rebuilding of society in 200 years.
eternalmortal@reddit
Does anyone have these already compiled and downloadable?
JonathanLindqvist@reddit
Science text books. Literally any science textbook post 2000.
dittybopper_05H@reddit
I need to emphasize this:
WE WOULD NOT BE KNOCKED BACK INTO THE STONE AGE.
And again, for emphasis:
WE WOULD NOT BE KNOCKED BACK INTO THE STONE AGE.
We have the knowledge of what is possible. Plenty of people still have hand tools. We have plenty of books.
We would be knocked back to perhaps the 19th Century technology-wise. *MAYBE* the 18th Century, though we'd have plenty of machines that would still work, or could be made to work with some repairs, or could be repurposed for another task.
Obviously there would be a lot of changes, but we wouldn't end up as roving bands of hunter-gatherers like many imagine. Things would be rebuilt relatively quickly, if not in the same form. For example, electrical generation might become isolated and hyperlocal instead of the vast grids with few very large power plants.
Tools take a while to wear out, and you can use them to build stuff before they do. People don't just go stupid and forget everything they know about technology. I mean, the distaffbopper doesn't know how a lot of things work, but I do.
Tools
KillerofGodz@reddit
None, all the easy to mine resources are gone, so you need modern tech to harvest the resources for modern tech.
PurposeHaunting4663@reddit
Absolute fuckin' bs.
KillerofGodz@reddit
It's called the ladder problem... I'm not going to say how true it is but it's a fun little thought experiment.
Then you get other fun little thought experiments like the Fermi paradox. But that has to do with hypothetical theoretical civilizations.
ESB1812@reddit
I’d say foraging and trapping books, water purification books, and old school farming methods…mule and plow type stuff. Maybe some Permaculture books as well…stacking and efficient use of resources would be needed.
timelydestiny@reddit
ENERGY AND CIVILIZATION by Vaclav Smil
casey_cz@reddit
With 4 people you will be so inbreed the books will become useless over time.
baardvark@reddit
Remember to wheel Mom out from under the bed once in awhile.
PurposeHaunting4663@reddit
Got that reference. ewww.
The_Cons00mer@reddit
😂
Marples3@reddit
Dr. Stone Manga set, at least the first fre chapters
meyers6624@reddit
When Technology Fails
sabir_85@reddit
Quantum mechanics 101, and the Fourier series
i-call-your-bluff@reddit
Don't worry about it. You're going to be dead before you can rebuild it
Outrageous-Bit-4989@reddit
Maybe a stupid answer but textbooks? A lot of scientific breakthroughs involved math. So highschool to college maths and science. Definitely year 1 microbiology and biology textbooks. Art and history too so if they find ruins they can just look at the textbook instead of wasting years trying to figure out what they found
Bloaf@reddit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinery%27s_Handbook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marks%27_Standard_Handbook_for_Mechanical_Engineers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry%27s_Chemical_Engineers%27_Handbook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRC_Handbook_of_Chemistry_and_Physics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merck_Index
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merck_Manual_of_Diagnosis_and_Therapy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plotkin%27s_Vaccines
NorthernPrepz@reddit
Came here to post a similar list. Honestly this and engineering text books. The thing is you’d need way too many and your list is a great cut.
The reality is 4 ppl can’t do it all from scratch. It could and would be done. The hardest thing is going from 0 to 1, and unless you go back to literally 0, you’d get back to 0.8 pretty quickly. You can’t destroy all the knowledge everywhere unless you wiped out the entire human race in a massive fireball.
Unpopular opinion perhaps. But books on law, society, psychology, leadership, governance. The groups that reform cohesive groups fastest will be able to rebuild technology fastest which will give them an advantage.
artoflosings@reddit
Not stupid at all! That's a great answer!
Usr_name-checks-out@reddit
A box full of Cracked, National Lampoon, NY Times Crosswords, Playboys… and maybe a few Playgirls, magazines and a copy of a Confederacy of Dunces.
Mothy187@reddit
You need a foraging book
blasterbrewmaster@reddit
Well this doesn't cover the books to rebuild, but there's actually a great Japanese comic/anime that kind of approaches this idea called Dr. Stone. The idea is a beam of light covers the earth and petrifies every human into a frozen stasis state for more than 4,000 years, long enough that almost all traces of human civilization have eroded execept for the human statues, and a teenager who was obsessed with science awakens and tries to rebuild civilization. He basically had a encyclopedic knowledge of chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering and it goes through the steps of all the different advancesments he needs to remake different tools or chemicals and stuff with pretty good accuracy.
keigo199013@reddit
I would recommend midwife textbooks/guides.
No matter what happens, people will still be dealing with pregnancy.
QuickAardvark3138@reddit
My guy, I present this
preppers-ModTeam@reddit
This book is an attempt at humor. It constitutes what our rules define as demeaning others with regarding preparedness. The author clearly believed that rebuilding civilization from scratch is a joke, and his illustrations have absolutely no practical value.
Berkamin@reddit
The Low Tech Magazine collection is a must-have. It compiles the low-tech solutions for many of the problems human civilization has had to deal with.
See this page. Their thematic collections start half way down the page.
Low Tech Magazine | Offline Reading
Famous-Dimension4416@reddit
Looks super interesting! Have bookmarked it for future review
Feral_668@reddit
Take a look at the Foxfire series of books. It has everything you need to survive off grid.
suricata_8904@reddit
Books on plant ID for foraging and herbals on how to make medicinals from some of them.
Assuming plants are still something you’d want to consume (think Chernobyl)
FrankieNP@reddit
Machinery’s Handbook (any edition)
Negative_Waves@reddit
If you are looking for "missing link" books, then I'd suggest you look up "The Way Things Work, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Technology". It comes in two volumes and illustrates technologies from weaving to printing to internal combustion to integrated circuits. The books have been out of print for a while, but still available second hand. I think that as long as you can read English, something like these would be really invaluable kickstarting technology.
Karynmcs@reddit
I have these 2 books, purchased long ago to start my survival library...
nomercyfortheweak666@reddit
Good smerm and eggs
TacTurtle@reddit
frequent repost 3
WrathOfGood@reddit
1633 sounds very interesting! I just downloaded the audiobook from my library.
-toadflax-@reddit
Dungeon Crawler Carl
WrathOfGood@reddit
All of the Foxfire books
raynravyn@reddit
https://www.beprepared.com/products/z_legacy_zb_b2basics_back-to-basics
This one.
DeFiClark@reddit
WHO International Medical Guide for Ships (much better book than Where There is No Doctor, which is dated and geared to small clinics; the WHO book assumes no other treatment options are available on site) — this would be my if you can only have one medical book — latest is $ but older versions are online free pdf
Engineering in Emergencies — guide for aid workers with everything from organizing for disaster recovery to sanitation, water, power restoration — if I could save one book from my library this would probably be it — imagine a disaster that has wiped out all public infrastructure, this is the book aid workers use to start from scratch
I’ve seen a book that kind of fits your gap, but cannot remember the title, it’s something like Medieval Crafts or Life in Medieval England…may take some digging but it’s essentially a handbook of medieval crafts.
Back to Basics and Handbook for Self Sufficiency (Seymour) — both are better books than Encyclopedia of Country Living. Seymour’s book has come out in different editions with slightly different names, they are all basically the same and it’s a great starter book for small hold farming.
Escape the City Vol 1 and Vol 2 — collected wisdom of a small hold city transplant farmer who learned how to do everything, unlike a lot of the other “city to farm” books that have a nostalgic hippy back to the land bias this one tells you for example everything you need to know to select the right tractor for your needs
Last but not least, Deep Survival and The Gift if Fear should be on every bookshelf, both are about the psychology of survival and a prepared mind set: Deep Survival examines why people make stupid decisions that get them killed.
JRHLowdown3@reddit
Agriculture. There is no way without modern systems we can support the amount of people on the planet- not an earth worshipping comment, a reality comment.
Without working tractors (and their resulting logistics train), chemicals, large deliveries of seed and fertilizer etc. sustaining LARGE AMOUNTS of people isn't going to be very possible.
In your scenario or every own like it, there will be a die off. That will help with the above situation to a degree. However if we look back over the centuries agriculture in larger scale (again not talking about your homestead or mine) was often carried out via slaves. Had the war of Northern aggression (what we call the civil war in the South lol) not happened for another 10-15 years, the "slavery" issue wouldn't have been one as tractors came out of Moline, IL (John Deere) and replaced human labor for a lot of ag work. And it would have been a lot cheaper to buy a tractor then "cradle to grave" pay for a slave that could be injured, run off, etc. And for the sensitive types, I'm not referring to any skin color as you look back in real history and every race has been enslaved at some point in time.
In a situation like you mentioned would agriculture go back to a slave based thing like in centuries previously? Dunno, probably not. But something would have to replace tractors and equipment.
Another possibility would be in smaller towns/areas many folks would revert to small scale farming AND their trade of: X. The local doctor may mostly deal in medicine, but would likely (or should) have a few acres under cultivation, both for his usage and storage (the thing often missed with food production- growing enough to eat fresh in season as well as enough to put up to keep you through to NEXT harvest). This is the part often missed by some preppers that think that their job will be to "monitor comms" (or stand guard, or be the nurse, etc) and nothing more. Nope, sorry, just like on a working homestead now, there will be plenty of physical work for everyone and no one will get a pass cause of their skill sets. You might stand guard or "monitor comms" for 6 hours then head to the fields for 2 or 3 more hours each day.
Many books postulate a quick "bounce back" from a major event. Without a stable source of FOOD and food production that would definitely need to be guarded, there can be no quick bounce back. "Getting the internet back up" won't mean shit if your starving, or others are starving and looking to kill you for food.
Had a bunch of books in my amazon list last fall and my wife bought a ton of them for me for Christmas. I just finished "How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm" by Lewis Dartnell. While based on this thread you would think this would be the book to get... it's not. It's more of a 30,000 foot view of various subjects. The guy has DONE pretty much none of the things mentioned (you can tell) and mentions living in a 600 sq. foot apartment in London... In that regard he is like 90% of the folks writing "prepper" books now- very little or no actual long term experience with it but giving you an overview to work from.
A better choice in books would be:
Engineering in Emergencies- a practical guide for relief workers.
I'm about 3/4 of the way through this book, it's awesome. This is foreign ad worker stuff but without most of the fluff. Getting water systems up and going IN DEPTH not just "oh I have a filter". All based on large "community" type relief. The potential "savior of the subdivision" types would do well to get and read this book and use that for TRUE PLANS not just wishes for helping their "community" after an event. The guy or gal that could ACTUALLY IMPLEMENT some of these systems post collapse for a small community would be an actual valuable member of the community.
The reality comes down to each us being able to take care of our own, in doing so, we reduce the need for: power (when you have your own AE system), groceries (producing as much of your own as you can, having stocks in depth), medical (good health, getting regular exercise, learning to take care of minor things yourself), etc. All these REDUCE NEEDS and increase self reliance. I'm not saying you'll be 100% self sufficient, but any less reliance on modern systems is a good thing and should be what we are working towards.
used-to-have-a-name@reddit
This is an interesting book that starts from your same basic premise: https://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/buy-the-book/
Then there’s this one, which I haven’t read, but have browsed through at my brother’s house. The illustrations are beautiful and potentially useful.
https://global.hungryminds.com/collections/all/products/the-book
There are lots of fundamental books on specific topics, but these two purport to address your specific question.
keegums@reddit
Don't forget books for teaching children how to read. Otherwise your library will be useless. And that's one of the books you better bring with you if you have to pack up and leave your library behind
Famous-Dimension4416@reddit
Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills by the Editors of Reader's Digest.1981 It's the book that actually got me into preparedness I spent hours at the library pouring over it's pages when I was in middle school. It has detailed instructions for things that would be helpful rebuilding civilization from homesteading including gardening, building a house, baking bread, to blacksmithing. Packs a lot into one book.
Ubockinme@reddit
Could you make your font any bigger? FFS
Jessawoodland55@reddit
I have this book and the follow up books. They cover a LOT of basic things, water systems, basic gardening, stuff that would get you started at least.
HurtsCauseItMatters@reddit
What about something on hydroelectric? I'm not part of this community but the reddit alogrithm pushed this to me and I've always thought the ability to recreate hydroelectric would be a big deal. I know, I know ... no scifi but that part of one second after always struck me in the days/weeks/months after an event for things like medical facilities, radios, and other community facilities.
There are several books about planning and designing micro hydro facilities (using nearly those exact words) though I'm not the one to know which one is best.
King_Saline_IV@reddit
The number one most important for rebuilding civilization would be a stable climate.
Extreme weather will smack any food surplus to zero. Can't do the civilization thing without a food surplus
Ubockinme@reddit
Well, if we mess everything up bad enough, nature will probably do a reset on its own. I doubt humans will be part of the plan. We’re well over due for a polar shift.
Drycabin1@reddit
The Bible. It teaches us to love one another.
Ubockinme@reddit
Also how to not eat fruit, turn your friend into a pillar of salt, how not to communicate, woman’s place is in the kitchen and how to make enemies of those who have opposing views.
Have you actually read the bible?
twitchss13@reddit
I think a lot of you are failing to understand a few things here.
Even if we aren’t sent back to the Stone Age, having that historical perspective of how things were done to get where we are is invaluable knowledge. Understanding the ‘why’ is half the battle in connecting concepts together when learning. Scavenging will only get you so far.
The other thing that’s making me chuckle is those that think it would be impossible to learn anything technical enough to get civilization going again if you weren’t already doing the technical thing. I cannot count the amount of times I had to school myself on a highly technical subject. I didn’t have someone to teach it to me but needed to know how to do it. I’m not saying a single individual (or 4) could absorb enough knowledge to rebuild on their own. That would take a rather large community dedicated to studying any available material they had and helping each other out where possible. Which is what the point of any rebuilding library should be. As others have pointed out, it would look like a university at some point.
You would be surprised what can be accomplished with a metal file, hammer, arbor press, drill, saw, any metal bench stock, and a good dose of patience and imagination.
My recommendation is technical/university level history books. An initial focus on semiconductors and generators would be a good place to start since they form the foundation of society as we know it today. Technical manuals on any industry equipment might not give someone the knowledge to recreate the tech, but should be good enough to get existing equipment turned back on. In a similar vein, anything in troubleshooting electronic malfunctions would go a long way towards repairing already existing/scavenged equipment. Books on how to recycle glass, plastics, and metal. How to make all of the various oils. How to generate industrial gases like nitrogen, oxygen, methane, propane, acetylene, etc. books on mill, distillery, and forge building. Books on architecture/construction.
cowgomoo37@reddit
The machinists handbook covers a ton of engineering practices
Doyouseenowwait_what@reddit
In the real world steel and iron would be the easiest to obtain unless you erased everything ever built. So primitive iron working and bronze are what you are looking for as far as foundry. That research comes in many of the Metallurgy basics books. As for a how to you will have to delve into foundry building for processes. Each process requires a different type foundry and heat level or fuel requirements.
CCWaterBug@reddit
I remember in some books they used leaf springs off cars to make swords.and spears. Spoons for broadpoints etc... pillaging commercial buildings was very effective
Icy-Medicine-495@reddit
My buddy was secuirty for a gold mine in Africa and he brought back a manchette made from a leaf spring. It was by far the best wood chopper I saw and would make for a great sword. They actually employed 30 plus local men to patrol the mine and they where armed with similar machettes.
CCWaterBug@reddit
Yip... also nantucket series, they had one milling lathe , made a ton of shit with that...
MilesMayVary@reddit
Island in the Sea of Time! So good.
CCWaterBug@reddit
Yes,excellent book, so interesting to read that after reading dies the fire.
MilesMayVary@reddit
S.M. Stirling is fabulous. TIL that the Emberverse series has 16 books now! I only read the first three. Woohoo!
CCWaterBug@reddit
It gets weird after 3... but I powered through
Doyouseenowwait_what@reddit
Well I have tried many different combinations and macerations of the trash craft. I've found certain lawn chair frames make a pretty good crossbow bolt. Just about anything metal can be modified to an arrowhead. Metal just has a value if you know the ways to use it. I've watched tribesmen blacksmith a jungle knife from a leaf spring and it's held up for 30 + years. Skills are an asset if you have them but most are in the position of untried and untrue. Not everything you think works in reality until you try it.
Ring_Tha_Bell_97@reddit
My bug bag includes: pocket Bible, copy of the constitution & my old school Scouting Field-book
shikkonin@reddit
That's a worthless collection of I've ever seen one.
Bluddy-9@reddit
Agreed. 4 people aren’t going to be able to run our infrastructure. There will be enough left for people to backwards engineer everything without a few generations. Focus on building a well organized and oriented society/culture.
Padeencolman@reddit
The Knowledge: How to rebuild Civilization by Lewis Dartnell.
shikkonin@reddit
That is the first one you'll definitely need.
Interesting_Bowl_289@reddit
BOOKS
GlasgowJimmyBhoy@reddit
Wasteland survival guide 🤣
Electronic_Name_325@reddit
Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design
Astroloan@reddit
Pick one.
Honestly, the best thing you could stockpile is a map to your local community library.
summonsays@reddit
As a software developer "The Art of Electronics (for solid-state revival)." Is something maybe your grandchild could use but not something that would be of any use in the first 10-20 years.
If we're talking needing to relearn metallurgy then making a circuit board is going to be well beyond us for a long time.
OpenBookBurned@reddit
The Giving Tree.
Konradleijon@reddit
Awesome
Konradleijon@reddit
This is great
UnfetteredMind1963@reddit
How Things Work Volumes, I to IV by Roger-Jean-Segalat. This should cover everything. We have it on the grab and go shelf.
humanofearth-notai@reddit
You're probably fucked on anything to do with plants if you don't already have some level of experience with them. Some things are obvious but there are a lot of difficult to ID plants and one wrong move will kill you. It also hard to suggest something without information on your region.
People fear mushrooms, they should fear plants.
Wild_Candle5025@reddit
Check out Ryan North's "How to Invent Everything".
Basically, it sets the scenario where you're a time traveler stranded in the past and gives you everything you need to get a lot of modern-day tech
Fair_Adhesiveness849@reddit
Isn’t blacksmithing what got us into where we are?
KimBrrr1975@reddit
the US govt. released some great booklets during war times to teach people how to be self sufficient, including instructions on how to build things like barns. My sister has my grandpa's WW2 Navy carpentry book and used it solely to build a shed. Similar to the victory garden booklet, but they went into depth on things like water, and soil and seeds and tractor maintenance. Some you want to be careful of, like the advice in 40s canning/food preservation is NOT what is considered safe anymore.
HecticGoldenOrb@reddit
Don't know if it's the same thing or what grew out of the original booklets, but The Appropriate Technology Library is along this line.
https://iffybooks.net/explore-the-appropriate-technology-library-%E2%98%80%EF%B8%8F-apr-21-24/
The_Stereoskopian@reddit
Link brokn
HecticGoldenOrb@reddit
I'm using a chrome based mobile browser with Canada as my VPN location and it's coming up fine for me.
M3LLO15@reddit
Hi, may I DM you regarding another post?
HecticGoldenOrb@reddit
Sure, and thank you for asking first. Much appreciated.
MutedFeeling75@reddit
I’d die ngl
montana757@reddit
Have you looked into the back to basics book or the complete how to do it yourself book from readers digest?
jay1167@reddit
The Mystery Method: How to Get Beautiful Women
Outspoken_Idiot@reddit
First thing is ban all religious books, one mans mad view point and stories should dictate to others how they should lead their life or be willing to lay it down to protect that image of a god.
After that we could skip a lot of the industrial era stuff and focus on the aids that reduced manual labour, and known aspects to improve the quality of life.
HunterGreenLeaves@reddit
"The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" (1976) by John Seymour
Silver_Objective7144@reddit
Foxfire series
DarthByakuya315@reddit
The Encyclopedia of Country Living is a must have. Along with the Bible.
premar16@reddit
If society collapsed I don't think we would go back to stone age I feel like your skipping a few steps of human evolution
Femto_picto@reddit
Some guy on here had something called "The library", it's massive.
veritable_squandry@reddit
a canticle for liebowitz
RVALside@reddit
Oh man there's a reference. The ending really hits hard.
-Thizza-@reddit
I couldn't get through all that religious talk, it was like reading the bible.
MurphysLawInc@reddit
Wie funktioniert das? - if i had to choose one singular book - it covers a lot of principles but is a bit outdated then again if going from scratch it will take a while and the next gens can figure that beyond out
rumpledfedora@reddit
I would suggest some foundational books on how to cook food. There's a lot of fancy gadgets used to cook meals that require a working power grid.
I'd also suggest books on safe food and water preservation techniques.
PepperJack2000@reddit
Be sure to destroy all books and literature with Karl Marx's name.
His miserable existence and publications only ever led to misery, suffering, more wars, and more death in the last century.
-FTT@reddit
Math textbooks & books on architecture & carpentry
shortidiva21@reddit
Bookmark
MywayontheHuawei@reddit
Boks r 4 loozers
dc1489@reddit
The June issue of Popular Science 2009.
Just wanted to be funny. I like your question though, I’m making a list on the comments.
dankpoet@reddit
The Meditations of Marcus Aerelius
N2Shooter@reddit
How to Build an AR15.
coffeeluver2021@reddit
I would want the Kama Sutra by Vātsyāyana. Someone needs to start the next society with a better understanding of love and sexuality. The reason this world is shit is because men don't know how to use their penises correctly.
perfectedinterests@reddit
Look at 1337x.to. a lot of survival resources there.
The book beyond collapse. Free PDF download.
Where there is no doctor, Where women have no doctor Where there is no animal doctor Where there is no psychiatrist The knowledge
The lost ways Austerity medicine Ditch medicine Emergency war surgery List goes on.
Sudden-Presentation4@reddit
Republic by Plato The social contract by Rousseau
Elandycamino@reddit
Dr. Chases home advisor
Big_Statistician2566@reddit
Practical construction engineering books.
Mekatha@reddit
Fire fox book series
Ok-Standard8053@reddit
Detailed plant ID resources from actual academic sources. It’d be a shame to die from trying not to starve, or burning the wrong stuff. Too many of the online sources, which you could backup somehow, are full of community sourced, incorrect (sometimes dangerously) info.
narkj@reddit
None
newhappyrainbow@reddit
US Army Survival Guide
Before rebuilding, you have to survive. It’s comprehensive, tested, and free as a pdf.
mcstyle1@reddit
I recommended reading Cormack McCarthy's The Road first. It will help you decide if you even want to try to survive if society collapses.
Being part of a strong community may be better for survival than trying to go it alone.
RVALside@reddit
In addition to other things I've seen noted: a basic understanding of building science and how that relates to your region (available abundant materials etc), electrical understanding like using an induction motor as a generator, rectifiers, charge controllers, battery care, inverters etc., a basic understanding of available comms like hamm etc.
DemelleNorth@reddit
Encyclopedia Britannica.
Fancyonetoo@reddit
The Foxfire series.
I have most in paperback and the rest as pdf files.
The Encyclopedia of Country living by Carla Emery
I've referred to this one often.
RVALside@reddit
Grew up a bit "different". I didn't realize the stuff in the foxfire books wasn't common knowledge until I was a bit older. Great books. Highly relevant, especially regionally. Great skills for more primitive living. Also if you've ever come across foxfire it's really wild.
Complex_Confusion552@reddit
Encyclopedia Britannica
androgenoide@reddit
11th edition.
mabden@reddit
Math, Algebra, Calculus, Pyshics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Geology, Anatomy, History, English text books
Dictionary, Encyclopedia.
The Boy Scout Handbook
Herbal Medicine
American Medical Association Handbook of First Aid
The Ultimate Survival Medicine Guide
SAS Survival Handbook (or almost any prepper survival book)
Organic Farming Books
Plant, Insect, Animal Identification books
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Leonardo Da Vinci : The Complete Works
The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution by Thomas Jefferson
The Complete Works of JR Tolkien
The Republic by Plato,
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle,
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca.
Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche, T
The Myth of Sisyphus and The Stranger by Albert Camus,
Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre.
lustforrust@reddit
Every single book title ever published by Lindsey Publications Inc. They went out of business in 2012 though which makes finding physical copies very hard. Their last catalog can be found on Internet archive and is a good starting point.
Other books I recommend:
De Re Metallica by Agricola
Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy by Wayne Moore
grm3@reddit
507 Mechanical Movements by Henry T. Brown published in the 1890’s. One of my favorite books as a mechanical engineer.
OneQt314@reddit
Maslows hierarchy of needs. People will want to just survive & therefore nobody will be interested in technology & innovation, unfortunately.
So books on farming & basics like shelter & clothing. Books do degrade over time with use, literacy falls, furthering lost knowledge.
Also, I think most smart people will perish and a lot of modern tech is complex and takes generations to build & innovate on. Hard to do it with just a few people and limited resources.
I thought about this a while ago, my concurrence with some theories that people have regressed. Humans have lost knowledge of building monoliths, the stars, genetics & etc, makes me sad.
Excellent question!
theLightyyyy@reddit
None. We did it once, we can do it again.
freerangelibrarian@reddit
Frontier Living and Colonial Living by Edwin Tunis.
oswaldcopperpot@reddit
How to make friends and influence people.
But seriously, the books will already be widely available in things called libraries.
Or many people have local copies of wikipedia.
Books are a important but actual technical training with teachers is extremely important.
It would be extremely hard for someone to figure out how to jumpstart basic manufacturing for something like insulated wire at the age of 17 and a pile of books.
lo5t5heep@reddit
Any book that teaches how to use a manual mill and lathe …
truth_is_power@reddit
Tools and seeds.
Solar panel to power a raspberry pi with wikipedia offline and a library of books.
Fenrirsulfr22@reddit
How to Invent Everything
EffinBob@reddit
If society collapses tomorrow we will not be reverting to the stone age or anything close to it the day after. Things might be tough for a while, but we will persevere while society rebuilds itself. Want a roadmap? Keep a copy of the US founding documents handy and don't waver from insisting that any society must be built on them.
Mechbear2000@reddit
Roflmao, most of the easily accessible fuel, coal, oil, etc was mined years ago Same with metals and minerals. All now require large amounts of energy we wont/don't have.
barrelvoyage410@reddit
Not entirely true for coal (depending where you live) giant open pit coal mines still exist and would work for a while.
Mechbear2000@reddit
Yes carring 100lbs of coal along 3 miles of deteriorating roads and 3/4 mile up, out of an open pit mine by hand sounds like a easy walk in the park.
420FappistMonk69@reddit
Where did anyone say it would be easy?
Mechbear2000@reddit
Man that's the definition of prepping. Preparedness so not to affect your current lifestyle. I like easy, I like food and water, I like living.
420FappistMonk69@reddit
Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages prep·ping /ˈprepiNG/
noun
the action or process of preparing something, or preparing for something.
I don't see anything about easy in there.
Mechbear2000@reddit
Oh another engagement bot, y'all getting testy out there in the inter webs.
barrelvoyage410@reddit
It’s vastly easier than how people did it 200+ years ago
EffinBob@reddit
You doomsday guys are positively hilarious with your predictions. Thanks for the comic relief!
Mechbear2000@reddit
Lol, you get old enough it's easy to see though all the bullshit. Now if you said there's tons of solar panels from commercial locations and large batteries all over the place from EVs you would have an excellent idea and a clue to the future.
PumpkinCrouton@reddit
I read one book where a group caravanned from their home base to a larger city, maybe Chicago because one guy remembered bus stops that had solar panels install shortly before Armageddon happened. They went scavenging them to bring back and set up. Of course this was back before every 8th house was roofed with them.
insurgent29@reddit
A canticle for Leibowitz
crypto_junkie2040@reddit
For chemistry check out the army guide for improvised munitions.
Also suggest getting some Peterson foraging guides and something on food preservation / canning.
Jimsocks499@reddit
Following!
FortuneTop6438@reddit
Awesome post
comp21@reddit
The kama sutra would go a long way to rebuilding the population I think
CCWaterBug@reddit
prima nocta!
BlairMountainGunClub@reddit
Eric Sloane. Foxfire. Books to read and enjoy
302-SWEETMAN@reddit
The anarchists COOK BOOK …..
Ryan_e3p@reddit
You'd likely need several large libraries. You will also need more than just "skill" books. Art, literature, philosophy, music, history, etc.
We (civilization) are the result of tens of thousands of years of not just "make fire" and "melt rock" and "boil water". This is why I focused my digital prep into having more than just "how to" books, but a collection of over 45,000 books, both fiction and non-fiction, across all major studies that can be used to teach from children to adults in university. Especially when it comes to fiction, books can inspire and give hope.
firekeeper23@reddit
I.would always include
The Gardening yearbook Any self reliance vegetable or livestock raising books (John Seymore does great books on this subject) Anything to do with permaculture or sustainable growing techniques. Living off the Land (SAS handbook) Food for Free Richard Maybey Anything by The Readers Digest practical series.
MindlessShot@reddit
Thank you for asking such a good question; this is something I’ve wondered about myself in the way of rebuilding civilization. I have nothing of use to contribute to this list regarding off-grid or bushcrafting in the traditional physical sense, but in the way of having mental strength, I recommend a translation of the Tao Te Ching to understand how to work with what you’ve got instead of forcing something that isn’t meant to be.
markaction@reddit
48 Laws of Power
SithLordRising@reddit
There are several on field medicine. The Special Forces handbook of medical secrets by James Li is good.
w00h@reddit
Just as a thought, I think it's in many cases not only about theoretical knowledge from books but more about applying that said knowledge. An experienced blacksmith can make lots of different tools out of a chunk of metal just by his skills, but give me a the tools and a guide book and I will fail spectacularly over and over.
Same goes for any other craft i can think of.
I think with a small village consisting of the right people you could at least get in the ballpark of a medieval settlement quite quickly, maybe a bit further. I think there's a project in Germany where they build up a medieval style camp with only the tools from back then.
NecessaryPosition968@reddit
Civilization for dummies
420FappistMonk69@reddit
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
dittybopper_05H@reddit
Physics and chemistry high school textbooks, along with what used to be called “practical math” textbooks. First principles that can allow you to start rebuilding things.
YetAnotherIteration@reddit
A few thousand years, probably.
wpbth@reddit
I don’t want to be a part of that
Katesouthwest@reddit
When There Is No Dentist
When There Is No Doctor
regjoe13@reddit
Having to learn how to do things even if you have books assumes being relatively safe, having basic needs covered, and having free time.
Mechbear2000@reddit
Why would you want to rebuild what we currently have? Why not go for something better?
In a week 50 million would be dead from lack of water In 3 months 200 million dead from lake of food. Need better plans.