A Libertarian Walks into a Bear

288 pages

Langue : English

Publié 20 janvier 2020 par PublicAffairs.

ISBN :: 978-1-5417-8851-0
Numéro OCLC :: 1198924886

(2 critiques)

A tiny American town’s plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears. Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town’s thick wilderness. The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale …

A tiny American town’s plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears. Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town’s thick wilderness. The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment — to live free or die, perhaps from a bear.

4 éditions

Bob a publié une critique de A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear par Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

Disappointing, more a sum of anecdotes on the city than a book on the Free Town project

3 étoiles

I have been wanting to read this book for a long time after I read the excellent article by its author in an online media. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations, but I was quite disappointed by this book. The author is a local journalist from New Hampshire and you see that tone quickly in the book: rather than documenting the project itself, it is a sum of local anecdotes, some on the Fee Town project, some on bears and some on the regions. Overall, there are some interesting parts, especially reading about concrete examples of this disastrous project, but there is very little said about the creation of the project itself or on libertarian ideal. Too bad for such an interesting story

piks3l a publié une critique de A Libertarian Walks into a Bear par Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

A fun and witty documentation on a political experience

4 étoiles

The book is a well-documented and well written document on a very unique political experience where libertarians decided to create a new libertarian utopian city (The Free Town Project). The book has a quite light tone although the reality is quite grim. The updated version of 2021 skims over the project of a libertarian state, the Free State Project.

It's really interesting to read and to compare it to other political experience, when reality meets theory, there are always interesting things happening.