BOOK REVIEW: TOTAL RESISTANCE

Total Resistance is a book that describes how to set up resistance cells and resist an invading force. The book is not a new book, and it was authored by a military officer out of Switzerland. Interesting thing is that the Swiss are generally neutral and much of their defenses are based on preparing for resisting a major invasion force. This book covers much of the ways in which a resistance force can set itself up and operate in general, whether it is in recruitment or targets for sabotage.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

My general impressions of this book are that it is a creative source of information and inventive concepts. You may not be able to establish a resistance that is capable of all the mentioned forms of sabotage, but there are plenty of passive forms of resistance that you can participate in that can help out resistance cells that are more capable. The book clearly informs the reader of the obvious dangers of engaging in even passive resistance such as gathering intelligence or being sympathetic of the resistance. I think this is very good to be thorough and constantly mention the risks and possibilities for participants of a resistance movement.

War is not a pretty glory-filled event, and being a part of a resistance cell is also far from being filled with glory. The whole notion of having to be on your toes and always on the move can be a drain on morale. Plus the harsh treatment to your family and friends can be taxing on the fighting spirit of a resistance movement. It is always easier to quit and be selfish. It is not so easy to continue to fight and risk death to yourself and your loved ones. But that is a sacrifice that each member of the resistance should be aware of. This book clearly illustrates this reality, which I was pleased to see. If you didn't know, I am a man of details, and I like to get into the nitty gritty details and analyze every possible outcome in order to get ahead of them.

MAKING GUERILLAS

The focus of this book centers around the concept of transforming the general populace into an effective guerrilla fighting force. This approach means that the enemy will face an ongoing insurgency, where there is no clearly defined or conventional opponent to confront. While this method of fighting presents significant challenges, it is equally difficult for the opposing side to defend against. Engaging in guerrilla warfare places you directly at the mercy of the hearts and minds of the local population. Without their active support, you will struggle to secure vital resources such as volunteers, supplies, shelter, and safe havens necessary for sustained operations.

The author suggests structuring the resistance forces by splitting them based on prior military and non-military. I feel like this exclusionary concept is a bit too complicated and will end up creating rivalry. If the former military groups begin to look down on the non-military groups, you could have a kind of in-fighting that has created a three way conflict much like what we saw in our revolutionary war where the regulars looked down on the militias for having shorter obligations of service.

LACKING STRUCTURE

One thing that I think this book is missing is more structure focus. There is little instruction about how to manage personalities in a time of war where the individuals may descent from the mission plan. There is little talking about the roles each person can play in a fighting force made up of militia or volunteer partisans. The other problem I saw in this book is that the author seemed to be generally inexperienced and tended to focus on generalities and macro concepts. Though, in some areas like sabotage and demolitions, the author provided sufficient details to the reader.

Overall, I think the author did a good job discussing the general concepts behind effective resistance, but failed to get too detailed in concepts like raid strategies, training, and gear selection and standards. I think something cool to see would be a modernized and more detailed continuation of this book that gets into strategy, specific training methods, and very detailed information on tactics and how to fight in general. I think this book showed enough info to show the reader how to place explosives, but there is little in the way of how to search bodies and vehicles, prepare and mount explosives, etc.

WRAPUP

In general, I do recommend this book, but I feel that this book should not be treated like a training manual, but as an initial source of information to encourage brainstorming the concept of resisting an invading hostile force. For preppers, this is an inexpensive and entertaining read that may help you prepare more logically. Treat this book like a doctrinal publication that discusses basic concepts rather than hard rules and procedures. Given it’s age, you will obviously need to make some adaptations for the modern era.