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Reccomended Reading:
Introduction Readings:
Author Derrick Jensen's Website
is an important place to start. There you can join the Derrick Jensen
discussion group listserv, as well as see Derrick's own book reccomendations.
The works of Derrick Jensen include A Language Older Than Words,
The Culture of Make Believe, and, when it is published, the
currently-in-progress What Goes Up. These works and their premises
are well-researched, intelligent, and moving, and they are central
to this book project.
DieOff.org is a very extensive
collection of information relating to oil exhaustion and the collapse
of industrial civilization.
The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg is a recent and comprehensive
look at fossil fuel exhaustion, the lack of realistic energy replacements,
and some of the society effects. (I also interviewed
him.)
Ran Prieur's website is a
great source of collapse-related news and links, as well as excellent
essays written by Ran.
Beating Hearts Press,
distributor of In the Wake and other great print media in Australia,
has lots of radical reading material available for order.
Books on why Civilization is bad and how things got to be the
way that they are:
Ishmael, My Ishmael, The Story of B and other
works by Daniel Quinn.
In Search of the Primitive: A Critique of Civilization by
Stanley Diamond.
My Name is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization
by Chellis Glendinning.
Any works by Lewis Mumford, in particular, The Myth of the Machine,
The Pentagon of Power, Technics and Civilization, and
The City in History.
Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change by
William R. Catton Jr. is an excellent book about ecology and carrying
capacity. However, some of his anthropological history is not entirely
accurate. The books above give a better understanding of the lifestyles
of humans before civilization.
I highly recommend checking out the Healing the Earth radio show's new website at ResistanceisFertile.ca. You can read summaries of and listen to insightful and compelling interviews on a variety of extremely important subjects including unlearning and outliving civilization, climate collapse, indigenism and the police state and political prisoner support.
1. Basic Survival Readings:
The best book that I have read on the subject of wilderness survival
is Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival by Tom Brown
Jr., Heather Bolyn (Illustrator), with Brandt Morgan. It is comprehensive
but succinct. Brown's love and respect for the wilds and wild creatures
shines through. Tom Brown has a variety of field guides and books
of interest.
I heartily reccomend the great resources at rewild.org
and, in particular, their wonderful reclaim-rewild
zine.
Schools for wilderness skills:
Wilderness Awareness
School has a 9 month residential program in Duvall, Wa that can
get you significantly on your way to learning what you may be looking
for. They have a great program and a great community. Check out the
website for pictures from the residential program.
Earthwalk Northwest
also offers a 9 month 2 day/week intensive internship program. I believe
next years class will have 12 students and 2 teachers so the student:teacher
ratio is great.
Tom Brown's Tracker school
offers a variety of different courses.
The Wilderness Youth Project.
Wilderness Survival
is a web page containing information right out of US Army Field Manual
"Survival" (FM 21-76).
Teaching Drum Outdoor School:
A friend of mine and previous In the Wake contributor is currently taking an 11 month wilderness skills training program, which she reccomends.
Teaching Drum Outdoor School has an 11 month Wilderness Guide Program in the North Woods of Wisconsin that teaches survival, awareness and
atunement skills. Along with shelters and wild foods, much is taught about healing from the trauma of civilized life, community, personal power, and
connection to the land. Check out the website (www.teachingdrum.org) for
information and pictures.
The founder of Teaching Drum Outdoor School, Tamarack Song, also has several related books which I've added to the bibliography / links page.
2. First Aid and Wellness Readings:
There are a number of excellent books
on this subject published by the Hesperian
Foundation. They are designed for areas or communities with limited
access to medical professionals, and include Where
There Is No Doctor, it's companion volume Where
There Is No Dentist, as well as the woman-focused Where
Women Have No Doctor, and A
Book For Midwives.
For People with disAbilities:
David Werner, who wrote several of the above books from the Hesperian
Foundation, also wrote two other excellent books with information
on simple adaptive technologies and tools for People with disAbilities
and their communities. These books are available online. They are
Nothing
About Us Without Us: Developing Innovative Technologies For, By and
With Disabled Persons, and Disabled
Village Children: A guide for community health workers, rehabilitation
workers, and families. These (along with other great publications)
can by ordered
in hardcopy from HeathWrights:
Workgroup for People's Health and Rights.
3. Tools Readings:
Improvisation and Do-It-Yourself Gear:
Make Your Own Gear!
A webpage with many links and instructions.
How to make
snowshoes.
Ron
Moak's make your own gear page.
The Aprovecho Research Center
does some excellent research on a number of subjects, including appropriate
technology. They have some excellent stove
designs, several of which are online.
4. Shelter and Clothing Readings:
5. Deindustrialization Readings:
Background reading: security.resist.ca
has a lot of useful information relating to security culture and measures
to can take to protect yourself.
Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching edited by Dave
Foreman and Bill Haywood is an excellent guide to disabling industrial
infrastructure. It also includes important information about security
precautions.
6.Tactical Skills and Discussions Readings:
Ward Churchill has written a number of books relevant to a discussion
of tactics. In particular, I would recommend his excellent short book
Pacifism as Pathology, which skillfully debunks pacifism as
the only means to effective social change. I would also suggest Acts
of Rebellion: The Ward Churchill Reader, which has a wonderful
cross-section of his articles and essays.
7. Community Skills and Discussions Readings:
8. Food Gathering and Growing Readings:
Background Reading: The
worst mistake in the history of the human race by Jared Diamond
How To Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons (see more at
www.growbiointensive.org.)
The Country Living Encyclopedia: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book
by Carla Emery is an incredible and incredibly comprehensive book,
covering almost every aspect of rural and farm life, with extensive
information about gardening and raising animals. I highly recommend
it, as it is very useful. It is over a million words long, with plenty
of pictures. (Another thick book on the same subject is Storey's
Basic Country Skills, which I cannot recommend. I found it too
entangled in petroleum-requiring procedures, and too full of superficial
"country living" skills like how to repair drywall.)
The Peterson Field Guides include excellent, high quality
books on Edible and Medicinal wild plants, as well as wildlife identification
in general.
Feral Forager by the Wild
Roots Collective.
The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy
by Masanobu Fukuoka (read online about Fukuoka's seedballs).
Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth (seed saving)
Cascadia Region food-related books:
All the Rain Promises and More by David Arora (mushroom foraging)
Gardening West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon |
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