Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations [Paperback]

John Ryan (Author), George Dunford (Author), Simon Sellars (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Bored of visiting the same UN-recognized countries? Ready to explore somewhere unique and perhaps a little wacky? Want to add some really rare stamps to your passport? Then let Lonely Planet's guide to home made nations take you to a bunch of places you've never heard of. Here are countries where the national anthem is the sound of a rock being dropped into water, where the currency is pegged to the value of Pillsbury's cookie dough; where the citizens vote in a poodle as president and where if you're lucky, the king will put on a pot of tea when you stop by.

Full colour photographs
Maps, flags and stamps
Facts and Figures
Cultural Information
Things to see and do
Getting there and away

Editorial Reviews

Review

New York Daily News, September 10, 2006
'Sets out all the steps necessary to lay claim to your own sovereign soil.'

From the Publisher

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Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1st edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741047307
• ISBN-13: 978-1741047301
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #436,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Kugelmugel? Because Round Is Free!, April 14, 2007

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations (Paperback)

Do not order this book if you are seriously interested in UN-approved micronations such as Liechtenstein, Tuvalu, or San Marino. Buy this book if you are interested in "countries" with self appointed leadership featuring a penchant for secession and zaniness. The people and places in this book are all real, and vary from slightly to extremely strange. Most of them are lovable loonies, but there are a few more serious-minded communities, like Sealand and Christiana, for example. Sealand (essentially a sunken barge in the North Sea) has even had a coup, and Christiana has overriding interests in recreational drugs and tricycles.

I was very amused by this book, mostly by the people in charge of their own countries. I especially liked the Hutt River Province Principality in Australasia, which actually declared war on Australia, but was promptly ignored by the official government. Also local to Australasia is the Republic of Whangamomona, which has had both a poodle and goat as president. The goat, Billy (aka "Gumboots,") is frequently analogized to JFK according to the book as "accusations of vote eating surrounded the hot new president;" he was believed to have been assassinated by poisoned grass at age 14, and was given a state funeral. He now rests in a well-marked grave overlooking his kingdom.

The Republic of Molossia in Nevada is perhaps my favorite of the micronations. Not only do they have a Ministry for Space Exploration (the flagship rocket is shown on the launch pad,) but they have an official national sport of broomball, which to outsiders may appear to be a comical version of field hockey. Although located in an arid landlocked region, Molossia has a navy, with the flagship being the "MS Wombat." All this infrastructure requires capital, and the currency in Molossia is the Valora. For purposes of exchange rates the Valora is "pegged to the value of Pillsbury Cookie Dough, with three Valora being equal to one tube of Cookie Dough."

I am also fond of the Aerican Empire which has an official religion centered on Forsteri, the Great Penguin. Aericans believe in "the coming of Not-Quite-The-Apocalypse, heralded by the four 'Incompetent Riders,' comprising a penguin, a platypus, a giant walnut and a fourth rider that can't quite be identified." Meanwhile, life goes on in Ladonia, near Sweden, which is strictly governed by Cabinet posts such as the Ministry of Rock-Paper-Scissors, the Ministry of Things Under Rocks, and the Ministry of Apathy, which is a powerful force in the government. On the still wackier end of the fringe is the Republic of Kugelmugel founded on Austrian territory by artist Edwin Lipburger, who is now the sole citizen of Kugelmugel, a postmodern territory obsessed with balls and spheres. Why? Lipburger explains: "Everything is round...the Earth, life, the ball, everything turns...why not live in balls? Round is free, it has no beginning or end." With logic like that, how can you not want to visit Kugelmugel, and for that matter, the other places in this unconventional, yet uplifting, travel book?

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Micronations Come Alive!, October 19, 2006

By 

Travis D. Mchenry (Eastern United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations (Paperback)

Considering that my own exploits comprise a substantial part of the third chapter, I may be viewed as biased, but here you go...

Lonely Planet Micronations is a comprehensive guide to all things micronational. Their treatment of the various micronationalists is done from a light-hearted perspective, but is informative to the max. All of the major micronations are covered here, with biographies of their leaders. Essentially, it's a Statesman's Yearbook for unrecognized nations.

This book is a great reference tool, but is also very entertaining to read. If you've ever wanted to run your own country, this book will surely be a source of inspiration!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the man who would be King in all of us, November 4, 2006

By 

J. Thompson (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations (Paperback)

Rather collect taxes than pay them? Fond of issuing edicts? Want to have your own National Security Appartus? This is the book for you. Informative, colourful, well-designed, and hilarious, the Guide to Micronations will introduce you to such mini-states as the Barony of Caux, where the national sport is "Whacking The Welsh", and the heir is fond of "bizzare dentistry and recreational self-abuse".

Some almost-nations are covered here, such as Sealand (an abandoned gun platform off the coast of Sussex) and The Principality of Hutt River Province, an Australian agricultural protest writ large. Other, less plausible states are included, as well as those with legitimate claims to nationhood, like the aforementioned Barony of Caux, which tarces its documented history back to 1040 AD.

All in all, a fascinating and informative read, and an important reference source the discerning traveller, armchair or otherwise, will use for years.