When Violence Is the Answer

Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake

By: Tim Larkin

Narrated by: Tim Larkin

Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's Summary

This book could save your life: Protect yourself from violence and learn survival skills for dangerous situations with this essential guide from a former military intelligence officer.

In a civilized society, violence is rarely the answer. But when it is - it's the only answer. 

The sound of breaking glass downstairs in the middle of the night. 

The words "move and you die". 

The hands on your child, or the knife to your throat. 

In this essential new book, self-protection expert and former military intelligence officer Tim Larkin changes the way we think about violence in order to save our lives. By deconstructing our assumptions about violence - its morality, its function in modern society, how it actually works - Larkin unlocks the shackles of our own taboos and arms us with what we need to know to prevent, prepare for, and survive the unthinkable event of life-or-death violence. Through a series of harrowing true-life stories, Larkin demonstrates that violence is a tool equally effective in the hands of the "bad guy" or the "good guy"; that the person who acts first, fastest, and with the full force of their body is the one who survives; and that each and every one of us is capable of being that person when our lives are at stake. 

An indispensable resource, When Violence Is the Answer will remain with you long after you've finished listening, as the bedrock of your self-protection skills and knowledge. 

©2017 Tim Larkin (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"I love books that challenge conventional wisdom. This book makes us confront issues most of us do our best to ignore. Tim Larkin has written a necessary and important book that gives a good hard look at topics - violence, chaos, fighting - that most people don't want to think about. You should read it - and then you should give it out as a gift to the people you care most about because this book could very well save their lives." (Tony Robbins, number-one New York Times best-selling author of Unshakeable and Money: Master the Game)

"Excellent! In every way - from the opening, to the conclusion, to all the solid lifesaving, life-changing information in between - this book is solid gold." (Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Killing and Assassination Generation)

"A timely survival manual for life in a strange era....Just the attitude to adopt...Larkin provides some useful nuggets for these fraught times." ( Kirkus)

Excellent book on when violence is the only answer

Excellent book. I'm not a violent person but this book gives a very good perspective of when violence is the answer - and the only answer in most life-and-death situations. The author explains in detail that if you are confronted by someone who is intent on inflicting deadly physical force and serious violence against you, then you have no choice but to defend yourself with violence. You can't talk logic or reason to try and calm down a violent criminal, a psychopath, or a sociopath, who is determined to kill you or inflict severe injury on you.

The techniques that Tim teaches in his self-defense courses are deadly serious. He teaches you how to protect yourself and stop an attack by inflicting severe physical injury against a violent attacker/criminal. This book doesn't teach you the self-defense techniques of Tim's courses, but rather he explains the moral, logical, and common sense reasons why and when violence is the answer.

An EXTREMELY IMPORTANT point that Tim explains to the readers of this book to avoid violent confrontations whenever possible. For example, if you do have the opportunity to walk away, run away, or drive away from any situation without being physically harmed, then that is ALWAYS the best option! If you're in a situation where only your ego or your pride gets injured, then walk away from the situation without any physical harm. Tim explains that if someone gets road rage and yells at you when driving, or someone says something that insults you, or someone drinking in a bar is rude or offensive, etc. Those are all examples that everyone encounters in their lifetime. Since words can't physically harm you, then the only thing that gets hurt is your ego or your pride.

Great advice that you hope you'll never need.

The stories Tim Larkin tells will send chills down your spine. Especially the one with the mother in the kitchen with the baby upstairs.

The information in this book is something everyone should be familiar with. The criminal element in the world won't play by your rules, so you need to understand their rules and use that against them.

My only complaint about this book is the repeated mispronunciation of several words throughout the book. I'm always happy when an author narrates their own work, but there needs to be a spellchecker or "talkchecker" to make sure that things are done correctly.

Prepare Yourself

The subject matter is not pleasant, but it's not supposed to be. Tim provides a no nonsense and brutally honest approach to survival in rare violent encounters. He describes the human body's weak points and how to use them to disable attackers. No lists of endless martial arts techniques that only work in limited scenarios. Just basic principles to injure or perhaps kill asocial predators that have decided to target you.

Epic Study of Violence

Pure distilled violence is a state of nature. It doesn't care who's right, who's wrong, who's the good guy, who's the bad guy. It favors only the person who wields it best.

A refreshing and much needed insight into pure distilled violence. Modern martial arts / combat sports are sports with rules and contain a lot of misconceptions and bad practices that can get you killed. The junky in the street who's high on meth with a knife in their pocket or the violent sociopath is neither a trained martial artist nor does he/she care about any rules. They want what you have and/or they enjoy the process of hurting you. Tim Larkin, and also Tony Blauer with his SPEAR System have finally demystified the misconceptions about violence that have been so pervasive in our society for so long.

This is an epic book. On my shelf next to Gavin DeBecker's "Gift of Fear", Rory Miller's "Facing Violence", Dave Grossman's "On Combat", and Van Horne/Riley's "Left of Bang", among others.

Every responsible adult citizen in our society should should read this and know the content. Being trained to defend in the face of violence is as important as knowing how to do CPR, First Aid, and how to use a fire extinguisher. Our society would be a much safer place. You can and should live a peaceful life by always avoiding avoidable violence. But when violence finds you, you need to understand it and know what to do. Studying it doesn't make you paranoid; it's akin to studying how to put out a fire, apply a tourniquet, or do chest compressions.

this is not a self defense book...

This is not a "self defense" book, this will not teach you "punch here, kick there" and other moves that you find in martial arts manuals. This book describes the mindsets and motivations of anti-social and psychopaths who are comfortable with violence, and how to recognize them. This book gives you the mindset that there is no self defense, but reciprocal aggression and force of violence to disable an attacker using a knowledge of physiology and body mechanics. This is not a happy book, for some it will be very disturbing, but it is honest and straight forward.

Good to semi-good philosophy, bad tactics

The philosophy of meeting violence with more violence is well thought out in the book. However, the tactics on how to implement that violence is inflated. It makes it seem like you can kick someone’s knee out or land a crucial blow to someone’s throat with ease. This is not easy and requires a willing partner. Yes, take that opportunity if your attacker provides the opening, but how many attackers stop once there is pain? Someone under the influence of drugs or alcohol won’t respond. Again, the premise of the book is a good thought, but provides dangerous confidence to people that do not train with real world resistance. My recommendation is go and try it, see if you can land that “critical blow” that will stop someone “cold-turkey”. If you can’t do it yourself, look up videos of fights and see what is actually realistic. Again, if you stomp someone’s foot with a knee strike, you just might “break” their foot or you might obliterate your knee cap with the pavement. Please, just think things through.

Requires real-world training sessions

The book makes some good general points about how to recognize situations in which you have to fight for your life and how to deal with them. The problem is that the specific practical advice (e.g., where and how to strike) is quite spotty and I am left with the clear impression that in order to effectively employ his methods I would have to participate in real-world training sessions.

Excellent...just excellent...

Not so much a He-Man How-To, but an intellectual, reflective and spiritual analysis of where we sometimes have to go (or are forced) and a thoughtful indictment of victim hood. As a former Special Forces Operator and 4th Dan in Shorin Ryu I have almost nothing but praise. My one (tiny) criticism is the chapter on throwing...I see why the author felt necessary to touch on the subject, but I believe he should have been a little stronger in emphasizing the peril of closing the distance (or being forced to grapple) with an opponent intent upon violence. In other words, train and train hard before you attempt! Still, under the circumstances, I’m quibbling with a detail. This book is a gem...and possibly a life saver. BUY IT, and thanks Tim Larkin.

Really good idea - had a perspective changing moment

The idea on the book is incredible and perspective-altering. You’ll pay for the book in the first chapter.

The actual instructions are too hard to understand in audio form. I was completely lost as to any information for executing the key idea.

But, again, the key idea was very helpful and I’ll take it with me through my life.

The information way good but..

The pointers he provides are good but as a visual learner, I feel I would have to see or practice the moves. At times I had to pause and rewind to get the visual I needed therefore it took me a long time to finish the book. His voice as the reader was also a downfall. Since the information given felt helpful, I'm giving it 3-4 stars.