Knowledge is like guns. It is a tool that in itself has no moral values. It is how it is used that makes it good or evil, or similarly (but not quite alternatively) lawful or unlawful.
The Preparatory Manual of Explosives 3rd Edition is a valuable reference book, full of great information rarely found elsewhere, however, it is also highly illegal to actually construct, or plan to construct anything in this book without the proper licenses.
It is particularly difficult to acquire those licenses, however, if you can legally create the compounds in this manual, then this is a great professional reference.
This is no “anarchist cookbook” of slapped together ideas with dubious credibility – this is a book for professionals and should be treated as such.
Once again, as I have said repeatedly, you should never make anything found in this book or other explosive cookbooks without the proper licenses, permits, and safety protocols in place. Not only can you kill yourself or innocent people, you can go to jail for a long time. Alternatively, if you are a terrorist and make bombs, you will deserve to get shot in the face by the police or armed citizen.
I like to joke (not really a joke, but more of gallows humor) that I am on several “lists” due to my eclectic and controversial book purchases.*
However, as I used to tell my college kids (in intro to terrorism) if you don’t know the bad guy tactics then you can never hope to catch them. you will hear more about that when I get around to reviewing The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Mini-manual of the Urban Guerrilla, and Turner Diaries,
The author claims to be a chemical engineer, but I cannot verify that due to his use of an alias, I do know that the majority of his books are written toward clandestine drug labs, and are unofficial “required” reading within the DEA. I don’t know anything about drugs, but I can say that this book is a lot better than the majority of available explosive books.
In my experience, if someone mentions the “anarchist cookbook” in a discussion about energetic materials, you need to stop talking to that person because A. He is a moron, B. He doesn’t know anything, but thinks he does, C. Even the author of the “cookbook” admitted pretty much every thing in the book will get you killed (he wrote it in high school and later realized how stupid he was as).
As “Uncle Fester” admits in his book, making some explosive compounds is easy, it was “common” to make nitroglycerine on a kitchen stove in the late 1800’s, but if you don’t totally understand the chemistry, you can blow yourself up. What I like about this book is the “how not to blow yourself up” tips.
I do not have personal first hand knowledge from following the procedures in this book because without proper licensing it is highly illegal to do so. BUT, from my training and research I believe that the procedures would work, and that they are as safe as can be outside of a lab, using chemicals illicitly procured – which means – if you buy this book and try to make this stuff you will probably get arrested or blow yourself up (or both).
However, from a first amendment perspective, having this knowledge available is priceless.
*having mentioned explosives, terrorism, the first amendment, and the turner diaries together on one page has probably put me on another damn list…
not to mention the words, illicit, chemical, DEA, drug manufacture, and clandestine lab…. Crap, I did it again…
After being out of print for decades, Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and (Almost) No Money is being reissued with an afterword by an older and wiser Dolly Freed.
In the late seventies, at the age of eighteen and with a seventh-grade education, Dolly Freed wrote Possum Livingabout the five years she and her father lived off the land on a half-acre lot outside of Philadelphia. At the time of its publication in 1978, Possum Living became an instant classic, known for its plucky narration and no-nonsense practical advice on how to quit the rat race and live frugally. In her delightful, straightforward, and irreverent style, Freed guides readers on how to buy and maintain a home, dress well, cope with the law, stay healthy, save money, and be lazy, proud, miserly, and honest, all while enjoying leisure and keeping up a middle-class façade.
Thirty years later, Freed’s philosophy is world-renowned andPossum Living remains as fascinating, inspirational, and pertinent as it was upon its original publication. This updated edition includes new reflections, insights, and life lessons from an older and wiser Dolly Freed, whose knowledge of how to live like a possum has given her financial security and the confidence to try new ventures.
I like to joke (not really a joke, but more of gallows humor) that I am on several “lists” due to my eclectic and controversial book purchases.*
