When I first heard about the book Strategic Relocation — North American Guide to Safe Places 4th Edition by Joel M. and Andrew Skousen, I was intrigued. I thought it would contain some interesting insight for my own preparatory plans. When I received my copy, I found I got much more!
First Impressions
Being a college professor, I was immediately impressed with the amount of research done for Strategic Relocation. The father/son author team of Joel and Andrew Skousen produced a remarkable piece of work based on years of experience in the fields of home design, relocation consulting, architectural security and civil engineering. Reading the preface and introduction, I realized there were large amounts of military, political, sociological and criminological analysis involved as well.
Strategic Relocation starts with a lengthy general discussion of other countries to which one could consider escape should disaster strike. (But they are darn few in number.) It became rapidly apparent that if one is to relocate, it has to be here within the U.S.
Be prepared before you begin reading. Many of the topics are unpleasant to think about; things we naturally want to shut out. However, our current state of affairs require an open mind and open eyes.
Overview of ‘Strategic Relocation’
This fourth edition of Strategic Relocation was published in January 2021. While the authors cover sociological topics, they are not sociologists. They are, however, well-versed in the classical school of sociology. The Skousens pull no punches and lay out exactly what they believe and why even if it might offend. But the discussions are professional and accurate.
Section one, “Selecting a Safe Country,” includes chapters on criteria, politics, crime data and threats of war. The final chapter in the section even includes a regional scorecard. Section two is a more in-depth look at North America, covering the geography and climate of both the U.S. and Canada. The authors also discuss government intrusion on liberty and lives.
The third section gets into strategies. The authors cover choosing a safe place and how to customize a safety plan. This section lays the foundation for the authors’ ratings in section four. The individual state summary facts and ratings pages in section four are excellent. Each page starts with a star rating from zero to five next to the state’s name. The authors considered many factors, and some of the categories surprised me.
The categories — including population density, food production, gun liberty and military targets, to name just a few — are outlined in a table format. In addition to the table, there are further pages of notes for each state, covering peculiarities or other relevant information. They also included information about strategies for populated living areas and retreat areas.
I checked out my own state of Ohio, and found two important things. First, we only got a two-star rating, which was lower than I expected. Luckily though, the town I live just outside of was rated the best spot in Ohio to relocate to!
Wrap Up
There is so much more to be gained from Strategic Relocation. I suspect I will be reading it for some time to come because I’ve only scratched the surface. And be sure to note the color state-by-state maps at the end of the book that pinpoint sites subject to primary and secondary nuclear attacks. The price for Strategic Relocation is $35 at the Skousen website.
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