The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse

If you are considering buying this book, you are probably looking at the current economy and worrying about the future. You want to know how to protect yourself and your family from the effects of this downturn.

If you read other survivalist books, you start to think that it's useless to prepare. They make you think that you have to be a sharp-shooting tactician who can improvise a hand grenade using peanut butter and Band Aids. This is not true, as Ferfal explains in his book.

Ferfal is an ordinary person (with a wife and two kids) who is living through the day-to-day struggle of a failed economy, with all of the attendant crime and struggle. He gives advice that real people can follow. The book covers home security; personal security; Depression-proof jobs; basic defense techniques for ordinary people; what to buy in advance; legal issues and (my favorite section) advice from his wife. The site I bought it from allows you to preview the Table of Contents.

I am an ordinary wife myself, with minimal self-defense skills, no tactical training, and no "live off the land" knowledge. I found this book useful, informative and helpful, and after I read it I added many things to my shopping list that other "survivalists" never seem to mention.

A minor caveat: English is Ferfal's second language, and his writing reflects it. (The book is self-published, and it seems that he did not have an editor.) The writing is easy to understand, but sometimes amusing (he types "embrace yourself" instead of "brace yourself," for example.) Ferfal also uses cusswords sometimes; he explains why in the book. Neither of these caused me any pain, but you are warned.

1)The mindset of the American survivalist movement was set by Mel Tappan several decades ago: a) Retreat to a small town 400 miles or so from large cities b) Become self-sufficient. By and large, other survivalist writers have uncritically accepted Mel Tappan's strategy --because they wrote based on uncritical acceptance of a theory, not on actual practical experience.

2) However, Ferfal argues persuasively against Tappan's strategy based on Ferfal's experiences in surviving Argentina's economic collapse. He notes that government will always survive, that it will confiscate food and other supplies from the countryside to feed the cities, and that it will maintain the rule of law. All of which significantly affect one's survival plans and stockpiling. For example, he notes that open carry of assault rifles will get you arrested and imprisoned (the wealthy will ALWAYS maintain a police force to protect them) -- and that a concealed pistol and folding pocketknife is more practical.

3) Money will be of PRIME importance --not a curious artifact. Mel Tappan could afford to ignore this because he had married an wealthy heiress.

4) Ferfal agrees with Mel Tappan that isolated retreats in the rural countryside are likely to become what police called "secondary crime scenes" --places where residents are tortured by bandits into revealing hidden stores and are then murdered. He and Tappan both agreed on the importance of being part of a tight-knit, mutually-protective community.

3) What led American survivalists --and Mel Tappan -- into error was that they lacked security clearances and hence knowledge of US Government plans to maintain itself and its control even in the worst disaster: Major Nuclear War. Declassifed FEMA documents show a massive effort by the Government to relocate officials to emergency bunkers, to maintain control through hardened communications networks, and to seize essential resources (food stockpiles,etc) as soon as fallout radiation declines using databases of where the warehouses are located. This to supplement the US Government's own huge caches. Google "FEMA 160 Recovery From Nuclear Attack" or "Atchison Storage Facility".

4) Ferfal's view of the post-disaster environment is far more probable and realistic than Tappan's -- and hence his plans, advice, tactics, and equipment recommendations are more valuable.

5) By the way, anyone planning to retreat to Montana should Google "Malmstrom Air Force Base" and look at FEMA's predicted fallout radiation levels for that state if the Russians ever attack the Minuteman complex buried there. They might also read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" re the fate of isolated colonies like Viking Greenland, Easter Island and the Anazazi settlements in New Mexico. The only places
left with low populations are marginal for agriculture and would die off in the first drought.

I have a background from one of the most famous military elite units in the world; I'm trained in many "black arts", have been to wars and revolutions and I'm getting paid mega bucks to look after people. I don't say this to brag, just to state that I'm not a daydreaming wannabe. I got a lot out of the book, can attest to that the tips actually are sound and that I learned something from the book, so will you.

The author bases his writing on his experience living with his family in Argentina the last few years. The book tells regular people how to live trough extraordinary times. There is much non nonsense information about, kit, tactics, food and how to cope as a family during a crisis or a breakdown of society.

If you have seen the news the last couple of years you realize it might soon affect YOU and your family. Connately to what many books and authors tell you: even after a major economic and political crises life goes on, it's just "different"...

Actually I read this book when it first arrived a few moths ago. Having dumped into "FerFal"'s homepage while researching Argentina as a country to relocate to. I found his homepage giving extremely good and sound advices, both about Argentina but also security in general.

A lot of books are written about survival. I first got interested in the subject in the late 70s, and the books from then are still around, some good, some dated. With the current state of the world we see an avalanche of new books joining the classics, and some old once that never was classics in the first place gaining new fame.

Most "survival" books are unrealistic and at times naive. For instance on fighting and weapons, either they have a fantasy aspect to what is required or they overlook it completely. There will be violence in these scenarios and the bad guys ALWAYS have weapons; this book actually takes this into consideration and has the most matter-of-fact outlook on it I have seen.

I think one of the highlights of the book is the parts about upgrading yourself. Survival is, funny enough about being fit. Being prepared sure is a good thing, but having all the food and guns in the world is of no good if you are not fit and willing to fight for it; you will not survive, period! I know a lot of people that are not prepped for anything more than the next bar fight, but they sure as hell would take all your stock when TSHTF if you are not fit and armed.

The examples the author uses about the misconceptions often held as dogma on survival is alone worth the price of the book. A lot of thing written other place might get you killed in real life

So his language is not correct, neither is mine, who cares? You are not getting a book about grammar but about staying alive in the real world gone mad, THAT'S where this book delivers.

Is it perfect? No, I don't mind the brutal langue or imperfect English, but I find some of the topics could have been edited better from the homepage to the book, a few photos added and so on. But all in all it is by far the best book on the subject I have read.

Get this book and start to prepare. The worst that can happen from being prepared is that you get peace of mind and a better quality of life. The best thing that can happen is that you actually might survive to enjoy it.

I predict this book will be a classic

First of all, this is by light years the finest work on survivalism I've yet encountered. When you compare this book, which is based on experience, with others based on theory, you can arrive at only one conclusion: there is no substitute for experience!

To elaborate, the probable difficulties facing a survivalist group holing up in a shared retreat in remote regions is really brought to light by the wisdom of this book. That people are territorial creatures (even close family members) and can't so much as get through a Christmas holiday season under one roof without major differences of opinion ought to speak volumes for the massive potential for crisis-sized problems in a highly stressful conventional survivalist setup. And then there's the ongoing real life example of Zimbabwe where a hyperinflated currency, collapse of infrastructure and economy, and tyrannical government have combined to provide us with a living picture of how bad an idea it is to try to stand firm in a remote farm retreat. This book highlights such dangers (and more) and dispels so much of the mythology surrounding preparedness that it absolutely must be widely disseminated as a strong antidote to mainstream survivalist error.

And of course, for someone whose first language isn't even English, this book is an outstanding achievement. Which brings me to another point. Everyone should, as the author states, factor an emigration strategy into their contingency panning. It's a serious limitation on your options if you only ever consider relocation within your own country. Better to have a plan B, C and D. And to learn a relevant foreign language could one day prove priceless too, which is something we in the Anglosphere tend to overlook in our arrogance.

In sum then, don't hesitate to acquire this must-have book and re-evaluate your survival planning while you still have the chance.

Ferfal tells his story and offers tips of how to survive an economic collapse. Little things that you would never think of can kill you when your county implodes. Ferfal, though his experience, show you how to prepare and how to cope with a society and economic system in decline. Ever look at a stray cat as dinner? After reading this book, you will realize that almost nothing is off limits when there is no affordable food. The time to prepare is now, before inflation, before the infrastructure collapses, before TSHTF.