The Knowledge

Reviews / Votes

As the scouts say - be prepared! Say your prayers that you never need this book -- Bear Grylls A glorious compendium of the knowledge we have lost in the living... This is the most inspiring book I've read in a long time -- Peter Forbes * Independent * An extraordinary achievement... It is a great read even if civilisation does not collapse. If it does, it will be the sacred text of the new world - Dartnell that world's first great prophet * The Times * The ultimate do-it-yourself guide to 'rebooting' human civilization * Nature * A terrifically engrossing history of science and technology -- Steven Poole * Guardian * Impeccably researched and beautifully written, The Knowledge makes me proud of all we humans have achieved - and dismayed at how much we have to lose. You need to read this book -- Stephen Baxter Dartnell makes the technology and science of everyday life in our civilization fascinating and understandable. This book may or may not save your life but it'll certainly make it more interesting.

This the book we all wish we'd been given at school: The Knowledge that makes everything else make sense -- Ken MacLeod, author of Descent A marvelously astounding work: In one graceful swoop, Lewis Dartnell takes our multi-layered, interconnected modern world, shows how fragile its scaffolding is, and then lays out a how-to guide for starting over from scratch. Imagine Zombieland told by Neil deGrasse Tyson and you'll get some sense of what a delight The Knowledge is to read -- Seth Mnookin, New York Times bestselling author of The Panic Virus and associate director of MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing A remarkable and panoramic view of how civilization actually works -- Roger Highfield of the Science Museum This book is useful if civilization collapses, and entertaining if it doesn't. After the cometary impact it may save your life, and if it doesn't at least you'll know why you perished -- S. M. Stirling