Basic chemistry, engineering and physics books.

Dick’s Book of Practical Reciepts is one of my personal favorites. It’s a compendium of recipes
and procedures to make various household and industrial chemicals and devices from the mid-
late 1800s

The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell. How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm.
Basic but a very fun read and full of ideas.

The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague DeCamp. A book about ancient engineering that covers
both day to day and the most massive engineering projects.

An older edition of The Engineers Handbook by Hudson. I have my Dad’s copy from his days at
West Point in the 1930s. The nice thing about it is that it assumes nothing more than a slide rule.

Which leads neatly to my next selection- a book on how to use a slide rule.

Figure just about any medical, engineering, crafting, chemistry or other practical book from say
the 1930s-40s and earlier. I set the date to avoid ‘see software CD enclosed’ type books because
computers ain’t going to last very long.

With these and some ingenuity, I don’t see why civilization couldn’t come back to something
approximating the late 1800s very quickly.

After all, the hard part is already done- our estimable ancestors already discovered how. All we
would have to do is follow where they lead us.
What 5 books would you use to rebuild society?

DISCLAIMER: This answer was before OP added the condition that every single human would
get to bring five books.

1.

All the featured Wikipedia articles:

It has 5000 pages, and was made by graphics design student Rob Matthews.

2.

Given that with #1 we have just about covered enough of science and history to guide people
into the proper direction, the others will be a bit more specific.

How to Rebuild our World from Scratch

by Lewis Dartnell.

Do I need to explain?

3.

Esperanto: learning and using the international language

by David Richardson

If we are going to start from scratch, the first thing I would ditch is the English language. Really,
we are going to rebuild earth; why not at least start from a somewhat more regular base this
time?

4.
The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation

by William Hart

The title is vague, but this book is basically Buddhism 101. For the same reason I would ditch
English, I would ditch the Bible, Koran, Torah, and all those scriptures. Might as well take the
one religion that does not make anyone worship deities and thus is far less likely to halter the
advent of science; and hope it catches on in the brave new world!

5.

I’m at a loss for the fifth one. You suggest :) I was going to include BINAS, which is a complete
science reference book containing all the formulas of gravity and motion, all the atomic weights,
all the isotopes, melting points, body organs, cell parts; everything of Biology, Physics and
Chemistry. But it seems to be a Dutch book only. Who knows an English equivalent?