Book Review--"Prepare Today--Survive Tomorrow"

Book: Prepare Today--Survive Tomorrow by Joe Harold (1984). This book is no longer in print, but it appears that used copies are available from various sources.

Overview: A how-to book on surviving a nuclear war or full economic collapse, including shelter, food, medical care, and self-defense.

Impression: This is the first book I read dealing with disaster preparation, as opposed to wilderness survival, and, for better or worse, has significantly shaped my outlook towards disaster preparation.

The book has a copyright date of 1984, so it was written very much with the thought of the Cold War and the possibility of full-scale nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the author also considers the possibility of an economic collapse (and devotes the better part of Chapter 1 to our "fiat" currency and the danger of hyper-inflation), the book is really written from the viewpoint of surviving a nuclear attack on the United States, as you can even tell from the cover, with the nuclear "flash" over a city, with a Cuban looking revolutionary standing in the background armed with an SKS rifle.

The book is divided into seven chapters, each with numerous subsections dealing with particular points.

Chapter 1--Our Crises Today, provides a quick overview of the author's primary concern for TEOTWAWKI: financial collapse and nuclear war.

Chapter 2--Needs for Retreat Living, provides a brief overview of some of the emotional and social needs for survival post-SHTF. The author stresses the needs for family activities and entertainment, and suggests musical instruments and board games. He also suggests working with neighbors, family and friends for mutual support and even forming survival groups; and even includes a simple democratic system to use for decision making. The author also briefly touches on the topics of developing usable skills and trades, ideas for medical preps, and the education of children.

Chapter 3--What's for Supper? starts to get into the meat of the matter (excuse the pun). He discusses various strategies for putting in a long term storage program, gardening and raising animals, and storing and purifying water. The author splits food storage into two general areas: (i) what he terms an initial storage system (basically, the food you store away); and (ii) "a continual storage system" which refers to storage of seeds and livestock for raising food down the road. Because of the author's focus on a potential nuclear war, he anticipates living off the initial storage system, which pretty much boils down to the old "Basic 5" that the LDS church emphasized at the time: wheat, powdered milk, salt, honey, and vitamin-mineral supplements. However, the author discusses supplementing this with sprouts and dehydrated and canned goods.

Chapter 4--Shelter from the Storm discusses the physical shelter in which you survive. The author presumes that you will have chosen a rural retreat location (and specifically warns against trying to stay in the large cities). He discusses some of the criteria for an ideal retreat location, including not only natural resources (good water and soil) but also staying out of fall-out zones. The bulk of the chapter, however, discusses some different designs for fall-out shelters--everything from an underground home, to an in-basement shelter, to other types of fall out shelter designs.

Chapter 5--The Three "Rs" is a detailed discussion of nuclear weapons, fallout, radiation, EMP, and shielding yourself from the same.

Chapter 6--Weapons for Defense is a primer on defensive/combat firearms, and the pluses or minuses to each of the various systems. Remember that this book was written in the early 1980s, so there was not the selection that is available today. However, after giving a run-down on pistols, light- and heavy-"assault rifles" (yes, the author uses that term), and precision rifles, the author then gives a fairly good discussion of the manufacture and employment of various booby-traps.

Chapter 7--Defense Philosophies is a short chapter setting out an attack scenario by a pair of bandits, then discusses some tactics for defending a fixed location.

Notable Points: Some of the things that strike me looking back on this book:

First, this is actually a fairly entertaining read. The author has a folksy, easygoing way of explaining things, interspaced with examples, ideas, and little stories, that makes it far easier to sit and read than many other similar books. With the amount of reading dry reports and analyses that I do at work, I really appreciate something that is actually enjoyable to read.

Second, if you are interested in techniques in surviving a nuclear attack, this book has a good summary of radiation and fall out. I think the book is worth getting just for that information.

Third, this book is notable to me for its introduction to improvised booby traps.

Fourth, I find the history of survivalism/prepping interesting, and so this book is a nice window to what ideas where current in the early 1980s.