At its core, New York City is about survival.

—Anna Maria Bounds

Latest Book

Urban Preppers and the Pandemic in New York City

Class, Resilience & Sheltering in Place

Drawing on urban and community resilience literature, Urban Preppers and the Pandemic in New York City: Class, Resilience and Sheltering in Place offers a detailed qualitative analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on New York City and on the philosophy and practices of the city’s urban prepper subculture. Read More

Also by Anna Maria Bounds

Bracing for the Apocalypse

An Ethnographic Study of New York's ‘Prepper’ Subculture

Increasing American fear about terrorism, environmental catastrophes, pandemics, and economic crises has fueled interest in "prepping": confronting disaster by mastering survivalist skills. This trend of self-reliance is not merely evidence of the American belief in the power of the individual; rather, this pragmatic shift away from expecting government aid during a disaster reflects a weakened belief in the bond between government and its citizens during a time of crisis. Read More

Praise for Books by Author Anna Maria Bounds

“Anna Maria Bounds’s account of the culture, work and context of the New York Prepper subculture offers a fascinating, often hilarious reversal of stereotypes about the tribe of doomsday preppers in the city. ”

– Meg Holden, Simon Fraser University