101 Things everyone Used to Know How to Do (and the rest of us should learn)

By Michael Powell

If you have an inkling that the modern world has dumbed you down, that your grandparents or great grandparents knew how to do things you don’t, or you want to increase your repertoire of valuable timeworn life skills, this book will fit the bill. Ancient tips, careworn advice, bygone suggestions, and step-by-step instructions introduce you to the things we don’t know how to do anymore, some useful and some just for fun:

• fight with a rapier and dagger • make bread and butter • find berries in the wild • pluck a chicken • read Roman numerals • write a sonnet • can food • read a coat of arms • make a fire without matches • set broken bones • write calligraphy • besiege a castle • use an abacus • make a stained glass window • mount and dismount a horse (for men, for women) • thatch a roof • wear a toga • hurl a battleaxe • make a lasso and throw it

“Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways [which]…provideth her meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” —Proverbs 6:6

191pp. durable color flex-cover. Hundreds of drawings, illustrations, diagrams.