I’m going to be teaching a college level prep class for field going professions this fall. I’m looking for current books on outdoor safety and survival. Preferably, the books would be aimed a little more at things like keeping calm, strategies when lost, hot and cold safety. These people won’t need to be able to make a dead fall, kill a bear, and tan the hide.
Thank You
As a kid, I enjoyed the Aircrew Survival Guide. Mine wasn’t paperback, but printed on a sort of waterproof plastic and wire bound, supposedly for pilots and such to use when they bail out in the middle of nowhere.
Not really current, but fun. Has stuff like how to identify poisonous plants, trapping, tanning, building a snow cave, “boring” stuff like how to deal with being marooned, as well as what to do if NBC weapons are used.
You might try Deep Survival - Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why.
It looks at several survival stories and tries to explain what factors led to the survival. It sounds like the type of book you’re looking for, no instructions on building a bamboo raft or hyena traps, just insight into mindset of survivors.
The U.S. Air Force Search and Rescue Survival Training is a great, HUGE, book with tips on survival in all types of conditions and terrain and even sections on how to keep up morale.
Thanks everyone. I now have a few places to start looking.
There’s a big difference to consider: Surviving those few days until rescue, or being a ‘survivalist” and trying to live for years in the wilderness. Too many books etc are for the second, which is mostly useless for most people.
just for fun, you might want to read this book with the wonderful title of “How to Shit in the Woods”.
It’s more relevant for a course in ecology than a course in outdoor safety and survival.
But it’s fun to read, and even more fun to display prominently on your bookshelf in the living room. 
I have read this book. It is quite interesting, but it doesn’t give a lot of detailed advice on how not to die. It more looks at survivors and tries to determine what factors the survivors all had in common, and comes up with really broad ideas, like ‘‘have a sense of humor.’’ The chapter on getting lost was the one I found most interesting. It talks about the psychology of lost people and the fatal mistakes they make. I think it would add color to the reading list, and the students would learn from it, but I wouldn’t use it as a primary instructional text.
If the “field going professions” include foreign travel then some information on how to avoid falling afoul of differing laws and customs, what to do if one does get into trouble anyway, when and how to contact one’s embassy, and the like would also be appropriate.