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A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)

A Libertarian Walks into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)

by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

PublicAffairs ·2020 ·288 pages
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About This Book

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.


Reviews

"simultaneously hilarious, poignant, and deeply unsettling ..."

Patrick Blanchfield· The New Republic Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Hongoltz-Hetling is a master of the turn of phrase."

Reid Forgrave· The Minneapolis Star Tribune Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Journalist Hongoltz-Hetling chronicles the libertarian takeover of Grafton, N.H., in his witty and precisely observed debut ..."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The firefighter put out the word that the little burg in which he lived, 'a flyspeck town buried in the woods of New Hampshire's western fringe,' could be a paradise for libertarians, if only enough of them would move there and take control of—yes, the government ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Both the Grafton project and the book itself peter out to their endings when the Free State Project pulls the 'trigger' on the libertarian plan to host a statewide takeover of New Hampshire ..."

Amanda Gokee· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Near the Top

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