Books like Tools for survival by James Wesley Rawles

The Unsettlers follows a range of modern Americans who seek simplicity by living off‑grid, illustrating diverse paths to sustainable, self‑reliant lifestyles in the United States.

A practical guide to prepare families for crises such as financial collapse, pandemics, or terrorism, covering water, food, fuel, medicine, communication, security, and barter.

If you've ever thought about pursuing a self-sufficient lifestyle on your own rural homestead or survival retreat but feared you didn't have the money or skills to do it, you simply must read this book. It is a goldmine of practical steps and instructions to take you from dreaming about an off-grid, independent lifestyle to living one!

In this frank and witty memoir, Ken Ilgunas lays bare the existential terror of graduating from the University of Buffalo with $32,000 of student debt. Ilgunas set himself an ambitious mission: get out of debt as quickly as possible. Inspired by the frugality and philosophy of Henry David Thoreau, Ilgunas undertook a 3-year transcontinental journey, working in Alaska as a tour guide, garbage picker, and night cook to pay off his student loans before hitchhiking home to New York. Debt-free, Ilgunas then enrolled in a master's program at Duke University, determined not to borrow against his future again. He used the last of his savings to buy himself a used Econoline van and outfitted it as his new dorm. The van, stationed in a campus parking lot, would be more than an adventure: it would be his very own *Walden on Wheels*. Freezing winters, near-discovery by campus police, and the constant challenge of living in a confined space would test Ilgunas's limits and resolve in the two years that followed. What had begun as a simple mission would become an enlightening and life-changing social experiment. *Walden on Wheels* offers a spirited and pointed perspective on the dilemma faced by those who seek an education but who also want to, as Thoreau wrote, "live deep and suck out all the marrow of life".

In her third book for Assouline, Julia Chaplin explores the living spaces of gypsy jet setters around the world, from Hydra in Greece to the Guéthary in France; from Cuixmala, Mexico, to Paia, Hawaii; and beyond to the Indonesian isles. Through stunning photography and first-person stories, Gypset Living opens the door to the fascinating and dazzling homes and haunts of the bohemian artists, designers, and bons vivants known as the gypset.

"Off-grid isn't a state of mind. It isn't about someone being out of touch, about a place that is hard to get to, or about a weekend spent offline. Off-grid is the property of a building (generally a home but sometimes even a whole town) that is disconnected from the electricity and the natural gas grid. To live off-grid, therefore, means having to radically re-invent domestic life as we know it, and this is what this book is about: individuals and families who have chosen to live in that dramatically innovative, but also quite old, way of life. This ethnography explores the day-to-day lives of people in each of Canada's provinces and territories living off the grid. Vannini and Taggart demonstrate how a variety of people, all with different environmental constraints, live away from contemporary civilization. The authors also raise important questions about our social future and whether off-grid living creates an environmentally and culturally sustainable lifestyle practice. These homes are experimental labs for our collective future, an intimate look into unusual contemporary domestic lives, and a call to the rest of us leading ordinary lives to examine what we take for granted. This book is ideal for courses on the environment and sustainability as well as introduction to sociology and introduction to cultural anthropology courses."--

A tense thriller in which a diverse group of strangers struggle to survive a devastating socioeconomic collapse that severs technology, supply chains, and the rule of law across America.