Rawles was born in Livermore, California in 1960 and received a BA degree from San Jose State University. He was a United States Army Military Intelligence officer, serving from 1984 to 1993. A webpage hosted on Rawles's personal website, for a Military Intelligence Officer's Basic Course, Class 85-6 "Virtual Reunion" He resigned his commission as an Army Captain, immediately after Bill Clinton was sworn in as President of the United States. Rawles worked as an Associate Editor and Regional Editor (for the Western U.S.) with Defense Electronics magazine in the late 1980s and early 1990s and concurrently was Managing Editor of The International Countermeasures Handbook. He worked as a technical writer through most of the 1990s with a variety of electronics and software companies including Oracle Corporation. In 2005 he began full-time blogging.

He is now a freelance writer, blogger and retreat consultant. He has been called a "survival guru." Rawles is best known as the author of the survivalist novel A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse.

Rawles is the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, a popular blog on survival and preparedness topics. According to an Associated Press article from May, 2009, SurvivalBlog had about 137,000 unique visitors per week. The main focus of his blog is preparing for the multitude of possible threats toward society. In his various writings, Rawles has warned about socio-economic collapse, terrorist attacks, and food shortages. As a consultant, Rawles advises his clients primarily via telephone on emergency preparedness.

James Rawles has written two books that are sold by mainstream booksellers.

Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse

His first book was a work of speculative fiction set in a near future period of hyperinflation and socio-economic collapse first titled: Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse, and later re-titled: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse. The book was originally released in draft form as shareware in the early 1990s but was later printed by the Christian partner publisher Huntington House. After Huntington House went out of business, the book was re-released by Xlibris, a "print on demand" publisher. Starting in April, 2009, the novel went back into wide circulation, in a 400-page trade paperback edition, published by Ulysses Press, Berkeley, California. This new edition was updated and expanded to include a glossary and index.

In early April 2009, shortly after its release, it was ranked #6 in Amazon.com's overall book sales rankings, but fell to #33 a week later. By the end of the month it had fallen to #98. The book's initial popularity caught librarians unprepared because the book was considered a niche title, and had not been reviewed by the major book review publications. According to Library Journal, the topic struck a chord with "...a small but vociferous group of people concerned with survivalism" who share a sense of societal anxiety associated with the economic recession. The journal went on to say that Patriots was "reportedly originally conceived as a nonfiction guide. According to a number of Amazon.com reviewers, the novel will not win any literary prizes; its strength lies in its practical reassurances, focus on guns, and Christian ideology." Librarians then scrambled to purchase copies of the book to meet the unanticipated demand.

How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times

Rawles authored How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times, a non-fiction book drawn primarily from posts from SurvivalBlog.com, his popular blog on preparedness topics, SurvivalBlog has about 137,000 unique visitors per week. The main focus of his blog is preparing for the multitude of possible threats toward society. In his various writings, Rawles advises preparedness in the event of catastrophe, including preparedness against the risks of a post-disaster society which include looting, armed violence and food shortages. He also recommends preparedness measures including the establishment of rural safe havens at least 300 miles from the nearest major city, financial planning for a future barter based economy, water retrieval and purification, food production and storage, security and self-defense techniques and strategies.

The book received a favorable book review on the weblog of Orville R. Weyrich Jr..There was also a summary of the book published in the March-April 2010 issue of The Futurist magazine, under the headline: "Alarmingly Practical Advice For Doomsday." The book is briefly quoted and the title is mentioned in the article "Are You Ready for the End of the World?" in the January 2010 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet, a publication of the Philadelphia Church of God.

In an interview with Rawles about the book, syndicated radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy said that the book "posits a collapse of civilization." When interviewed by syndicated radio talk show host Laura Ingraham about the book on October 5, 2009, she said that the book "goes through point by point the basics of being prepared and heightening your chances of surviving some type of major crisis." Echoing Rawles's writings, Ingraham warned that "there is a thin line between order and total anarchy in time of a crisis, when peoples lives are on the line...and all the nicities and the rules go out the door."

How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It has 14 chapters and three appendices, 336 pages, ISBN 9780452295834. September 2009. First Printing (September 2009): 20,000 copies. Second Printing (October 2009): 6,000 copies. Third Printing (October 2009): 25,000 copies.

An unabridged audiobook edition of How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It ISBN 978-1441830593 is also available, produced by Brilliance Audiobooks. It was narrated by Dick Hill.

FAQs

Starting in the early 1990s, he also authored or co-authored 17 Internet FAQ reference pages, primarily on firearms topics, such as one on antique guns that is often cited.

Rawles is an outspoken proponent of family preparedness, especially regarding food storage and advocates relocating to lightly populated rural "retreat" areas. His preparedness philosophy emphasizes the fragility of modern society, the value of silver and other tangibles for barter, recognition of moral absolutes, being well armed, maintaining a "deep larder," relocation to rural retreats, and Christian charity. In an interview in The New York Times, Rawles described referred to himself as a "guns and groceries" survivalist.

Rawles is a strong proponent of the right to keep and bear arms, even going so far as to say that people are "merely exercising a pre-existing right" when they carry firearms to public events such as political rallies. When he was asked about open carry, "but...without a permit?", he replied, "We have a permit...it is called the Second Amendment,"

A central premise of the growing survivalist movement, of which Rawles is a leading spokesman, is concern about the risk of a coming societal meltdown and the need to prepare for the repercussions. Rawles said that an incorrect far-right "lunatic fringe" media image has developed in part because of the actions of a radical few such as Timothy McVeigh. He called this a distortion of the true message of survivalism. Unlike the fringe proponents, Rawles focuses instead on "family preparedness" and "personal freedom". Rawles explains that the typical survivalist does not actually live in a rural area, but is rather is a city dweller worried about the collapse of society who views the rural lifestyle as idyllic. Speaking from his experience, Rawles cautions that rural self-sufficiency actually involves "a lot of hard work". In 2009, he was quoted as saying: "There's so many people who are concerned about the economy that there's a huge interest in preparedness, and it pretty much crosses all lines, social, economic, political and religious. There's a steep learning curve going on right now."