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