The Lost Ways Book – Does it Live Up to the Hype?
We saw “The Lost Ways” by Claude Davis being advertised widely and purchased a copy. It has a a few interesting items, and a lot of recipes. Overall we do not recommend it. We'll explain why, and share the books that we prefer.
The Lost Ways Book Review
The Lost Ways books touts itself as a survival book, teaching you how to live like a pioneer or Native American. In reality, it reads more like a collection of blog posts, with modern technology sprinkled throughout.
It's incomplete, inconsistent, and definitely not off grid. (Immersion blenders do not belong in a book claiming to be teaching “the old ways”.)
The Lost Ways book is not as as good as Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living, and it's more expensive.
(Read our review of The Encyclopedia of Country Living here.)
We liked the information about the sheriffs, smokehouse and root cellar chart, but it needed about 40 more items like these to compete with Carla's book.
The Lost Ways is about twice the price of the Encyclopedia of Country Living, with less than half as many pages. The Encyclopedia of Country living is also a very dense book in comparison. (There is far more information on each page.)
For about the same price, you could get Emery's book AND another one and have far more value. (See The Best Homesteading Books list for more of our favorites.)
So although the Lost Ways book is okay, it is not on our recommended list. It needs more information on construction/building, skinning, and other traditional skills.
WARNING: If you choose to purchase the “Lost Ways” book, be careful with the checkout process. It is easy to accidentally order more than one copy or order bundles, or order the electronic version and not get the paper printed copy.
Also, since we published this review originally, we've had readers leave comments indicating that they paid for the book, but never received it. Purchase at your own risk.
See also “The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies Review – Is it Worth the Money?“
Our short list of preparedness books includes the following:
- Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living
- The Homesteader's Herbal Companion
- The Boy Scouts Handbook (1911 version)
- SAS Survival Handbook
- Where there is no doctor
- Where there is no dentist
- and if you are really focused on medical prepping, Lange Medical books (for reference) our cardiac surgeon friend recommends these – Surgery, Ortho, Pediatrics and so on
- Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America
- Butchering Poultry, Rabbit, Lamb, Goat, and Pork: The Comprehensive Photographic Guide to Humane Slaughtering and Butchering
You can also access electronic copies of out of print or older books at books.google.com. Some of them are quite good, including:
- Original Boy Scout Handbook (free eBook)
- Henley's Recipe Book (free ebook of how to make darn near everything)
More Homesteading Information
You can access our homesteading articles, all sorted by category, on the Common Sense Homesteading page.
We also have dozens of book reviews listed on the Homestead Library page.
Who is Claude Davis?
After this review was originally published, we took a closer look at “Claude Davis” and the team behind the Lost Ways series of books. It appears that Claude doesn't actually exist, and is simply a registered trademark. “The name(s), portrait(s), and/or signature(s) shown in the mark identifies Claudiu Giurgi, whose consent(s) to register is made of record.”
On the about page of askaprepper dot com, it describes the supposed background of Mr. Davis, yet I can't seem to find him anywhere else on the internet. The about page is about a mindset, not an individual, aimed toward their target customer. There are no details, like education or places of employment. He doesn't teach or present, he only seems to sell books and prepper content.
If we look on the privacy policy page of Askaprepper dot com, we find that the site is owned by Global Brother SRL. Further digging reveals that Global Brother SRL is registered in Romania. We have no beef against international business, but we feel it is inappropriate to present yourself as being from the United States while working from Europe.
Some Notes on Recent Lost Ways Advertisements
One the reasons we wrote this review is the “over the top ads” the Lost Ways book team is putting out.
One of their ads features wild lettuce as a pain reliever. The instructions in the Lost Ways book for making wild lettuce extract are likely to produce a truly putrid brew.
If you want to learn more about how to identify and safely use wild lettuce, see, “Wild Lettuce – Sleep Aid and Pain Reliever – Weekly Weeder #24“.
Another ad is for hardtack, where they tout it as a “superfood”. Hardtack is flour, water, and salt, baked until it's bone dry.
The reason there was hardtack left from the Civil War is because, to quote Crocodile Dundee, “Well, you can live on it, but it taste like sh*t.”
If you want to read some information about storing food that people want to eat, please see:
Best Non Perishable Foods (For Home Use or Donations)
Foods to Stock Up On (for Daily Use or Emergencies)
We also have over 100 post on gardening, listed by category on the Gardening Index Page, and and dozens of post on Home Food Preservation.
Originally published in 2020, updated in 2022.
Ordered December 4th. It was some kind of special sale. Never received the books.
Sorry they haven’t sent the books. Is there any way to cancel your order and get your money back?
Well thank you for the information. That is probably why my lost ways never showed up.
Sorry about that, but unfortunately many people have had bad experiences with the company.
I read a FB ad a couple of years ago about the Lost Ways, and it sounded genuine and appealing, but I had just never goten around to ordering. I have a day off today and ordering that book was on my list. Strangely, or serendipidously, I stumbled across your site and the cautions about how incomplete the book is and several instances of it not arriving to the purchaser’s home. I appreciate all the input and the references to other books that you consider to have greater and more valuable content. Thank you.
The company is very good at marketing and has hired many paid reviewers who are also affiliates for the book, so I suspect that influences the reviews.
I am an amazon affiliate, so I do earn from purchases through my links, but I’ve purchased the other books I recommend and we have them in our home library. We are avid readers.
Claude Davis’s photo is on Amazon.com with the books. He doesn’t look like the guy in the promotional video who resembles Dumbledore.
That would be because both of those individuals are paid actors, but it’s a great story for selling books.
Thank you for this very informative read concerning The Lost Ways, as I was about to purchase it until I read this and seen the books size in comparison to country living. I am appalled. Now I’d like to know was Dr. Nicole Apelin using the same publisher being that Claud Davis’s name is on the book as well.. (The Lost book of Herbal Remedies) it’s a bit confusing..
Yes, the books with Dr. Nicole’s name on them have been created by the same company as the “Claude Davis” books. That company is based in Romania. They have a series of books with a similar theme and marketing strategy.
I watched two video ads on Youtube from “Claude Davis”. In one video (advertising The lost ways book) it was an old man that said “I’m Claude Davis”. In another video (advertising the 70 off grid projects book) it was a young man who said his name is Claude Davis. I wonder if he doesn’t exist??
He doesn’t exist. He’s a made up character the company from Romania thought would appeal to ignorant American customers.
Just stumbled on to your website. I too, was thinking of purchasing Lost. Your review and comments convinced me to skip it. So far I really like what I see on your site. Keep up the good work.
There are better books, especially for the price. Lots of folks having delivery issues, too.
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
The photograph of the books side by side is telling. This is a typical web scam where the advertiser/ scammer makes something look much more substantial than it actually is. If one tries to use the very thin Lost Ways book as a resource they will be “lost”. One would not just need to read most of the books in the stack pictured in the article but also physically practice the concepts regularly to obtain the necessary skills and independent resourcefulness that the pioneers adapted at an early age.
People just want to believe that there’s a simple solution.
Thank you
I wish I had found THIS site before I ordered and never received “The Lost Ways” books. I certainly hope others find this site and read through the many comments as a warning to not throw their good money away.
I will definitely tell my family and friends to check out this site.
Thank y’all for trying to warn folks about those charlatans.
Yep, exactly what happened to me! I purchased the lost book. Definitely thought I was getting an actual book. Suddenly it was digital and there were extra charges for other book offers that I definitely didn’t agree to. Luckily I had used my credit card so I disputed the transactions and the credit card company dealt with it for me to make sure I got refunded. Nightmare. Total scam!
Thanks for sharing your experience, and I’m glad you were able to get the issue resolved.
Wat jerks the lost ways I’d say they’ve lost their way money hungry bt wat comes goes
It’s a business. They know people are worried and want to learn more about being more self-reliant, and are taking advantage of that trend with an intense marketing campaign.
I like the Foxfire series. The books you listed are very good. I have many of them.
The Foxfire series is a classic. I selected the titles that I did because I feel they’re more geared to the specifics of accomplishing different tasks, where the Foxfire series also includes a lot of storytelling.
If you never received the Lost Ways book just dispute the charge on your credit card. No need to call the vendor. The credit card company charges it back and makes the vendor prove you got it.
Thanks for providing this review.
The book cover looked enticing and the sales copy is very good. I was very tempted to buy before I went searching for a review. After reading your review I will need to reassess my decision.
Love your site by the way. Have spent many hours reading and learning.
Keep up the great work!
This book is a joke. Do not buy it. Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand all of your life, this book is filled with common knowledge. Their refund policy is a joke also. I’ve emailed repeatedly and never gotten an answer as to procedure to return the book. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Save yourself!
Sorry you had a bad experience, Lou, but thanks for warning others. I found the information very basic, too, and as mentioned, more like a series of articles rather than a well thought book.
This was the review I was looking for. I really liked the idea of the lost super foods, but their advertising method raised some eyebrows. Plus the overall cost was suspect. Then, I had to look through a page and a half on google search until I found one review that seemed independent and I am glad I persisted. I bought three of your essential recommended books, 40 projects, encyclopedia, and woods homestead. Thank you so much for your review and material. I wonder what else I should look for on this site.
Thanks, Jeff. I went looking for reviews before we purchased the book, and found out that most of them were paid reviews.
As for what to check out next, if you sign up for the newsletter, I send out a weekly roundup of seasonal content. All the content on the site is listed on category pages, which are listed in the welcome email, and linked in the top and bottom menus of the site. There’s gardening, food storage, recipes, preparedness, natural health/home remedies, how to use wild plants, homesteading – basically snippets of our lives made search engine friendly.
I order the lost books and I never gotten them yet and I want to know whats the hold up is they got me twice for the books and I would like to know what is going on with the books and my money so if I don’t here anything from you I will be getting a lawyer to get all my money back from you
As I noted in the article, we are in no way associated with the company that created The Lost Ways book. If you read through the comments, you’re not the first person they’re ripped off.
I would suggest contacting Global Brother SRL (the company responsible for the books) through the contact form on askaprepper.com.
Since they are based in Romania, you may have a difficult time getting your money back, but if you are successful, you could stop back and share how you did it to help others.
YOU SAVED MY LIFE! I decided to read this book for my final book report of the semester. I’m very inexperienced in these fields, but something about this book felt “wrong”. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but this article helped me realize why. I cited your review in my essay.
It’s a shame that books like this get bought up, especially considering that the people buying The Lost Ways are probably just normal, inexperienced people (like me) who want to live a more self reliant life.
Thank you!
Marketing has become very sophisticated, and if you are not familiar with a field, it’s easy to get pulled in by the marketing campaigns. The teams study their demographic and know it well.
In this case, the company has gone through the trouble to create and trademark an “avatar” that matches their target audience, leading people to believe they are connecting to someone “just like them”, or at the very least, someone who shares the same interests and values. They even sign their emails with their avatar saying, “God Bless, Claude”.
I’m glad you found the review helpful.
Keep my 50 bucks and I’ll keep blasting your website!
As mentioned above, if you are referring to the Lost Ways book, we are not associated with them and do not recommend it, so blasting this website will only reinforce what we said in the post. We are in no way associated with the company the prints that book.
This site is a scam. I never received my book and have had no response from the vendor or their so called support entity. I have asked for a refund for 2 plus months…nothing but crickets…
David – are you talking about the Lost Ways book? If so, that’s not ours and we don’t recommend it because there are much better options.
If you are talking about the Lost Ways book, I appreciate your words of warning to other potential buyers.
I ordered theses books and never recieved them!!! I want na refund as well!!!
The company that you are looking for is Global Brother SRL. They own the Lost Ways franchise and related content. As noted in the post, they are registered in Romania, so options may be limited.
Mr. Eastwood,
I too ordered the books, never received, and didn’t get a refund.
I hope others in this situation find this site. I hate to think of how many more people are being ripped off by these charlatans.
I ended up ordering and receiving: “The Forager’s Guide To Wild Foods” by Dr. Nicole Apelian Ph.D. and was not disappointed.
It sucks that these people are taking advantage of folks who just want to be able to take care of ourselves if/when SHTF and TEOTWAWKI happens.
Hope you eventually get your money back soon.
P.S. One might think you shouldn’t mess with a fellow who’s last name is Eastwood! LoL
Thank you David Eastwood for your honesty! I was about to buy two books, one for my sister, and the other for myself. Before I completed my credit card information, I had a hunch to check out the reviews. Well I am so glad I did!!! Thanks to you. I saved myself a headache.
I’m a former LEO. I was interested in the Kost Ways for the information on Sheriffs defenses. You stated that was a good part of the book but lacking info. Can you recommend something better? Many thanks.
We don’t have a ton of that type of info in our library, but you may want to check out Prepper’s Home Defense. It does have some info on forming community alliances.
I bought “The lost ways” and it was advertised to include “How to homestead on 4 acres”, “Survive an EMP attack” which I NEVER RECEIVED!! AT $50.00 WITH SHIPPING Is expected maybe it world be worth it. I am disgusted at the scam claims these people use!!!!
Lots of people are looking for self-reliance tools right now, and unfortunately, these are those who want to take advantage of them and not provide what they need.
I did the same thing. After complaining to customer service, who did offer me a refund, I was redirected to a new customer to the sale page, which indicated that those “bonus” books were e-books only. Yes, it was disappointing.
I bought my encyclopedia in 1994. I have read it and used it many times since then. The information is detailed enough to actually do/make the item.
Thank you for the “heads-up” on the book. We have a copy of Encyclopedia of Country Living and love it. We also use our gardening bible: Carrots Love Tomatoes book all the time.
You’re welcome, Rachel, and Carrots Love Tomatoes is indeed a good read.
Agree. Lost Ways and Lost Remedies, waste of money. Lost remedies tells you lots about each plant but not really what to heck to do with them. How to harvest, prepare, utilize. dosages. Nada. Agree with Grammy Prepper on books by the Altons. Even tells you dosages for pets on K1 tablets.
Thanks for the review, I was thinking of getting a copy. you saved me time and money Love your recipes and tips Teresa
You’re welcome.
I ordered a copy of this book too and was disappointed. As you say there is some good in it but for the price I expected better or maybe different.
I chided August when he told me he bought a copy, because I figured it wasn’t worth the price. Now we know, and hopefully can keep others from making the same mistake.
I suckered up and bought a copy of The Lost Book of Remedies from the same folks, and have to say I was less than impressed. Peterson’s Field Manuals are much better. And you can find many reliable herbal remedy books to accompany the field manual.
I strongly recommend The Survival Medicine Handbook by Dr. Alton and his wife Amy. As a former ER nurse, it is a quite comprehensive resource that is written in a manner that even a lay person can understand. (doom and bloom dot net, no I am not affiliated with them in any manner)
Army Survival Manuals are available all over the web as open-sourced. Older ones are best.
Just my two cents…
Thanks for your input. The whole setup from the “lost” people seems like it was made by a marketing team to advantage of people who are scared right now. Not cool.
Thank god I decided to check before buying that book :0) tysm for the reviews
You’re welcome.
Mee too
Hope you h uy’s are doing sdll! Sounds like you were about to have a great supper. I yotslly agree with August abouy liking to do projects, iit is great at making you feel accomplished.
Please stay safe and healthy so you can keep writing your blogs!!
Arnie Juelfs
Thanks, Arnie. Supper was good, and I had my weekly Epsom salt soak this evening. I started doing it when I had trouble with my skin back in 2015, and kept up the habit.
There’s always a ton of things to do around here, but we take care of each other. I’m thankful to be married to my best friend.