Book Review: Patriots

Patriots, by James Wesley, Rawles

This is probably one of the best modern survival novels, taken for what it is. Rawles has a slightly different focus than William Forstchen -- he concentrates on a small group of 8-10 survivors, there being no coherent community once law and order breaks down. The survivors in Patriots are a band of friends, who have spent years prepping a retreat and training in small unit infantry tactics. This group survives the crash and then form the nucleus of a resistance group that takes on an unlikely power trying to assert control over America -- European troops under U.N. command who are there to prop up an illegal U.S. government. The first half of the book concentrates on surviving the crash, the second half focuses on the guerrilla resistance to the Europeans.

I think there are very many things Rawles has right. His "trigger" for the TEOTWAWKI event is hyperinflation; to me this is a very realistic possibility. He envisions societal unrest in the cities leading to riots and governmental collapse, playing out rather quickly. I wonder if this would happen -- considering Weimar Germany, although there was horrific hyperinflation and the twin demons of Communism and Fascism arose as political movements, there was no general societal collapse. Instead, the people went to a "man on a horse," the genocidal maniac Hitler. I think hyperinflation could well trigger frightening political parties even in America, but I don't know if hyperinflation could cause a complete, overnight collapse. I think it would play out over some years.

Rawles is at his best when he describes the preparations of the survivors -- he details great lists of weaponry, supplies, the contents of the "bug-out bag," preferred post-apocalyptic vehicles, considers the various improvised weapons and tactics the resistance develops (homemade Claymores, improvised thermite grenades, etc.). The book is a great reference for developing and supplying a survival retreat. At times this tendency becomes tedious, the narrative becoming too didactic and less character focused. He is not a great writer, there is none of the poetic beauty or deep irony of Earth Abides or A Canticle for Leibowitz. Patriots isn't literature; it's a survival manual presented in novel form. This is how you ought to read it -- and as such, it is an excellent book.

The book has certainly helped my own preparations, and his approach to the problems of survival is very rational and pragmatic.