2 posts tagged “military manuals”

Paladin and Loompanics. What would we do without these unique book publishers? But now Loompanics has called it quits, and fortunately for us, Paladin will continue printing many of the Loompanics favorites.

Paladin Press is the source for books and videos on personal and financial freedom, survival and preparedness, firearms and shooting, martial arts and self-defense, military and police tactics, knives and knife fighting, and more.
Browse through their collection of startlingly original titles — more than 800!

Action Library

Paladin Press, Gunbarrel Tech Center, 7077 Winchester Circle, Boulder, Colorado 80301; phone: 303.443.7250; to order with credit card: 800.392.2400.

When Paladin Press was founded in 1970, the book-publishing world probably thought it would not even survive, much less become the success story it has.

The company came into existence in September 1970 when Peder Lund joined Robert K. Brown as a partner in a book-publishing venture previously known as Panther Publications. They changed the name to avoid inadvertent identification with the then-active and highly publicized Black Panther movement. The word “paladin” comes from the knights who served in Charlemagne's court in eighth-century France. It was with some irony that Brown and Lund named the company after knights dispatched by the king to redress wrongs in the land.

As former military men and adventurers, Lund and Brown were convinced there was a market for books on specialized military and action/adventure topics. Both men also firmly believed that the First Amendment guaranteed Americans the right to read about whatever subjects they desired, and this became the cornerstone of Paladin’s publishing philosophy.

Loompanics is gone, but there's still Delta Press! (and Paladin, but I'll save them for later). Delta Press was always a frequent advertiser in ASG, and being the Books and Videos editor, I was sent a big, heavy box of books each month with dozens of review copies. Many titles came from Delta, Paladin and Loompanics. One of the reasons why survivalists are usually wary of getting on mailing lists, and tend to use cash when buying a lot of their supplies, is that they prefer to remain private when it comes to what they are accumulating, be it food storage, self defense items, or even reading material. If you've ever seen the media attack someone who is a professed "survivalist", you'll always see their library collection paraded out with sneers -- with everything from the latest Soldier of Fortune magazine, to military manuals, tactics and revenge books inspired by the fictional character Hayduke, from monkey wrencher author Edward Abbey.

While I was attending the Soldier of Fortune convention each year during the late 80s and early 90s, the Delta Press booth was always a favorite to check out. They had some of the most outrageous books I had ever seen. Books you would never find at your local bookstore or library. Lots of military manuals and survival books. Books on privacy and identity. Anti-government books. Books that seemed more inspired from a life of crime than anything else. But there were plenty of law enforcement books as well. I guess you have to know the minds and the hearts of the bad guy --  to figure out his motivations, his tools and know-how. Survivalist want the info in case everything goes up in smoke, or when TSHTF, or TEOTWAWKI -- they want to know how to protect themselves should governmental institutions fail. Whatever the reason, it's still nice to know we live in a country where freedom of the press is still a right we enjoy. Knowledge and information can be used both for good and bad. Thank heavens that books are still legal, no matter who the author or the content.

Delta Press