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

The Free Town Project was a plan by a group of libertarians to take over an American town and eliminate its government. In 2004, Grafton, NH, turned this plan into reality, resulting in public funding for everything shrinking and state and federal laws getting quieter. However, the citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal, leading to conflict with the local bear population.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 30 September 2021
Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S.

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, Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road, turned that plan into reality.

Public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws didn't disappear, but they got quieter: meek suggestions barely heard in the town's thick wilderness.

The bears, on the other hand, were increasingly visible. Grafton's freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city, in an effort to get off the grid. And with a large and growing local bear population, conflict became inevitable.

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is both a screwball comedy and the story of a radically American commitment to freedom. Full of colorful characters, puns and jokes, and one large social experiment, it is a quintessentially American story, a bearing of our national soul.

Weight: 264g
Dimension: 139 x 210 x 24 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781541788497