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James Wesley Rawles (born 1960) is a non-fiction author, survivalist-fiction author, economist, blogger, and survival retreat consultant. He has been called an expert on how to survive major social and economic changes or catastrophes that could go on for years or decades, which is something he predicts will happen. Rawles is a Christian who regards himself as a conservative, constitutionalist libertarian.

Biography
Rawles was born in Livermore, California in 1960 and received a BA degree from San Jose State University. He was a United States Army Military Intelligence officer, serving from 1984 to 1993. He resigned his commission as an army Captain, immediately after Bill Clinton was sworn in as President of the United States. Rawles worked as an Associate Editor with Defense Electronics magazine in the late 1980s, and was the managing editor of The C3I Handbook and The International Countermeasures Handbook. He worked as a technical writer through most of the 1990s with a variety of California and Nevada companies including DAZIX, Grass Valley Group, Oracle Corporation, and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC). In 2005 he began full-time blogging. Sometime after 2001 he relocated to a remote ranch at an undisclosed location "Somewhere West of the Rockies".

He once owned a British "Ferret" Mk IV Scout Car.

He is now a freelance writer, blogger and retreat consultant. His children are home schooled.

Philosophical and political views
Rawles is an outspoken proponent of family preparedness, especially regarding food storage and his advocacy of relocating to lightly populated rural "retreat" areas.

Rawles was one of the many individuals warning about possible disasters related to the Year 2000 problem (Y2K).

Rawles credits Mel Tappan as the primary influence in the development of his survivalist philosophy as well as the impetus for launching SurvivalBlog.com. . Rawles has been called "The intellectual heir of Mel Tappan", and has been described as "...the survivalist voice of reason, following in the footsteps of Mel Tappan."

Rawles was quoted by the New York Times in April of 2008 that "interest in the survivalist movement 'is experiencing its largest growth since the late 1970s'”. He also stated that his blog's conservative core readership has been supplemented with "an increasing number of stridently green and left-of-center readers."

Economic views
In a Usenet post in February of 2001, Rawles fairly accurately called the bottom of the two-decade long bear market in the price of silver that had brought silver down from a high of $50 per ounce, to under $5 per ounce. In the post, Rawles mentioned a low of $4.25 per ounce. It actually bottomed just a few months later (intraday) at $4.03 per ounce.

As of January, 2008, Rawles stills sees silver and gold in "primary bull markets."

Rawles predicts a deep recession or possibly a depression in the near future, triggered by a housing market collapse and an "implosion" of global credit and the derivatives market.

Blog presence
Rawles is the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a very widely-read and cited blog on survival and preparedness topics. According to its statistics page, it has more than 71,000 unique visitors per week. The main focus of his blog is preparing for the multitude of possible threaths toward society. He has warned against socio-economic collapse, Avian Flu, the Y2K problem and terrorism attacks. In his blog writings, Rawles recommends that investors put at least 25% of their portfolios into gold, silver, and barter goods. He also advises his blog readers to store four year's supply of food in preparation for future hard times, and "double up" with other families to establish survival retreats. Rawles believes (as of his 2005-2008 writings) that the United States is headed for a hyperinflationary economic depression. Rawles favors the abolition of the fractional-reserve banking system, and a return to the gold standard. Rawles is also a proponent of Home schooling.

Published works
His first book, Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse, a novel, was first released in 1998. It was first released as Internet shareware in the early 1990s, and later published in interim form as TEOTWAWKI: The End of The World as We Know It, in the late 1990s. The story is set in the near future and describes a period of hyperinflation and a socio-economic collapse. While it is a fictional story, it is essentially a method to teach survival techniques in an interesting manner. It was re-released in December, 2006 in expanded form. The novel reflects a conservative interpretation of Christianity combined with a stereotypical approach to "the Good" and "the Bad" (Good Christians versus Biker-looter gangs). One early reviewer of the novel commented: "While it is true that the protagonists appear to be part of the religious right, it is clearly incorrect to stereotype them as intolerant racists or anti-government zealots." . The publisher's synopsis describes the novel as "distinctly pro-Christian, pro-preparedness, pro-gun ownership, and anti-racist."

His second book, Rawles on Retreats and Relocation, was non-fiction. It describes how to geographically select a survival retreat and stock it with key logistics.

His third book, SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog, Volume 1, was non-fiction. It is a compendium of posts and letters from the first six months of SurvivalBlog.

He also authored an action-adventure screenplay, loosely based on his novel Patriots.

Rawles also co-authored the Rawles Gets You Ready preparedness course, released in August, 2006.

He is also the author of numerous Internet FAQs, primarily on firearms topics.

Books

 * Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse from Huntington House Publishers, ISBN 978-1563841552 (November 1998)
 * Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse (33 chapter expanded edition) from Xlibris, ISBN 978-1425734077 (December 2006)
 * Rawles on Retreats and Relocation from CafePress, No ISBN (January 2007)
 * SurvivalBlog: The Best of the Blog, Volume 1 from CafePress, No ISBN (February 2007)

Screenplays

 * Pulling Through (A feature-length action-adventure "spec" screenplay) WGAw (WGA script registration service) #714352 (April, 2007)

Courseware

 * Rawles Gets You Ready from Arbogast Publishing, No ISBN (August 2006)

Articles
Some Internet FAQs and Reference Articles by Rawles.
 * AR-15 Magazine FAQ
 * M1 Carbine Magazine FAQ
 * M1911 Magazine FAQ
 * M14/M1A Magazine FAQ
 * The FN/FAL & L1A1 FAQ
 * The Mauser Bolt Rifle FAQ
 * The Pre-1899 Antique Guns FAQ
 * European Ammo Box Translations (editor)
 * Noncorrosive Priming Information for U.S. Military Small Arms Ammunition(editor)
 * Protecting Your Family From an Influenza Pandemic
 * Recommended Retreat Areas
 * Retreat Owner Profiles
 * Survival Gun Selection
 * Derivatives
 * The National Animal Identification System (NAIS)
 * Peak Oil: Implications for Preparedness and Self-Sufficiency

Other articles by Rawles:
 * James Wesley, Rawles on Survival Fire Arms: The End of the World as We Know It at Y2KChaos