Books, films and series on the topic of a global catastrophe that is changing our familiar world make you think: what would I do in the place of the heroes? Where to run, what to stock up on and how not to turn into a savage from Mad Max, but rebuild everything from scratch? Science journalist Lewis Dartnell knows the answers to these questions. His book is a storehouse of scientific and technical knowledge that will help restore civilization: from advice on how to get drinking water from improvised means, to explaining how to build an internal combustion engine "on the knee". If you think that this is a guide for survivalists, then you are only partially right. The purpose of the book "Civilization from scratch" is to acquaint the reader with the history of the development of science, to show that most of the great discoveries are not accompanied by "Eureka!" techniques, not 100 and 1 ways to improve your efficiency.