Customer Reviews

Principles of Personal Defense

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you're new to personal defense, you need to read... no you need to devour this text.

I assure you that once you ever face situations that Jeff Cooper describes, you will be equipped to handle them. This book literally could save your life.

Do not be a victim even when you're the victim!

If this book were longer, it would be even better but listen... if it were longer, fewer people would read it. It would sit on shelves for "one of these days" and then it might be too late.

I do not know Jeff Cooper but I have read one other book of his and I am so very greatly impressed. He teaches so much more than defense in his writings, although for this jewel, it's primary reason for being is to teach you to protect yourself.

This booklet is small but the principles it contains are huge in their relation to surviving real-world life-or-death altercations. Some reviewers state that these principles are common-sense and that people should known them instinctively. Unfortunately, this just isn't the case. The modern world has taken most people so far away from their common-sense survival instincts, that only books like this can get them back on track. Regardless of what other reviewers have to say, if you want the basic principles of the survival mind-set then you owe it to yourself to get this book.

The cost of this short pamphlet/booklet is a little high. The knowledge and proven concepts are invaluable...

Mr. Cooper is a true expert on the subject of self-reliance, self-preservation, firearms training and self-defense. This book is a very good primer for practical & realistic self-defense. Buy IT, READ IT, DO IT.

Rating this book is very hard, because it is a classic, and it is filled with fundamental truths. On the other hand, these thruths are not new, and they can be found in many books. You could even say that they are self evident.

The book has less than 50 pages, and of those pages about half are empty or contain illustrations. So it's a minor understatement to say that there is not much to read. On the other hand, every word counts, and there is not anything that's not necessary. However, when you read the book, you get a feeling that some of the principles are somewhat artificial, as if col. Cooper has tried to get the number of principles down to the magic number: seven.

In the end, when rating this book, I started with five stars. Then I reduced one star for the fact that these principles are not new, and Cooper has not invented them himself. Then I reduced another star because of the price, which is too high in my opinion. Nevertheless, this book has a place in the library of everyone who is interested in surviving in combat.

Too many reviewers of this book are entirely too worried about length and cost.

Jeff doesn't claim the concepts in this book to be original, nor does length have bearing on quality. The concepts in this book can be critical to survival. If our entire society thought and reacted in this manner, our crime rates would drop dramatically, and the overall society would be more polite and better behaved.

I have purchased and given away at least a dozen copies of "Principles". It has ALWAYS been money well spent. This book bears repeated reading.

Col Cooper's principles are fundamental to staying alive on the mean streets but they also form a critical set of skills for survival in today's business world. Many "modern" managers read Sun Tzu to learn how to defeat their corporate enemies. They would be better served by reading Col. Cooper.

Jeff Cooper is an icon in the self-protection handgun defense world. He has written in many magazines and that is how this book reads. It is the length of a magazine article and the information is for the novice. This is not a critizism, but a statement of fact.

Cooper's book is expesive for such little information, howeever, the information is "dead on" and highly important. The small chapters are informative about the "real world of self defense."
a nice book for the beginner.

This is a wonderful pamphlet on mental preparation, frame-of-mind, and calm decisionmaking. It is about attitude and how it relates to avoiding conflict if you can, and protecting oneself if you must. It is worth rereading every year.

Other reviewers have noted, and criticized, this text for it's common sense principals and it's austere presentation. It is true that there is nothing presented in this book that has not been contemplated by every gun owner or martial artist with at least a room temperature IQ. I myself read this book during my lunch-hour one day and can say that I didn't come away with anything new. But, I think that the critics are missing the point. Mr. Cooper's intention was not to reveal some profound secret, but to provoke though on the topic of self-defense. In this respect the book is very good. After reading this I found myself questioning how prepared I was to defend myself and what I could do to be more attentive in these matters. If this was your intention Mr. Cooper then well done!

I am sure Mr. Cooper is a very accomplished and knowledeable shooter and writer. However, I found this book to contain mostly issues and items that should be common sense to most people. As one reader of this book suggested in his comments, this is a magazine article with elementary drawings. Most of the criteria listed here should be explained to you at your handgun carry class in addition to the laws and general safety. I am sure to someone who wants to get an intimidating looking coffee table book where a mean looking fella is shooting at them, it's great, but for me, I found this purchase to be a dissapointment.

This does not mean I will pass on other Jeff Cooper books, but I will certainly read ALL of the reviews and try and make a better judgement than what the cover looks like.