Customer Reviews

Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations

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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?

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!

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.

... this is your book! I love it and it's big fun. I really recommend it to all flag lovers, people who like to know about very small and not so well-known countries. Okay, most of these "nations" may not qualify to join the United Nations but all of them are "real" (and there is even more fun data waiting for you just checking all the websites included in the book). I think the information is presented with great respect but with a bit of extra humor that makes the book very, very informative and a great entertainment at the same time. Chapters are not very long so it's perfect for a bed side table and short readings for many days. The quality of the illustrations and graphics is excellent. I especially appreciate the inclusion of images of flags, coins and banknotes of all these 'nations". It's a Lonely Planet book, so that says it all about its quality (superb! Sorry, I'm a big fan). And why not, I got more suggestions for original travel destinies!!

Here's the perfect recommendation for that world traveler who has seen the ordinary --an extraordinary set of recommendations for nations which are self-proclaimed - and seldom visited. From zany nations within nations such as Whangamomona within New Zealand where its president is elected by votes cast into a ceremonial toilet to the Empire of Atlantium, surrounded on all sides by Sydney, this is a compendium of the truly zany - and 100% real - independent 'micro nations' and as fun an armchair reader as it is a destination guide, complete with maps, places to stay, and everything you need to know to locate and enjoy the 'micro nation'. There's no other book with such a focus, making it a 'must' for any comprehensive travel library.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This survey of "home-made nations" is an entertaining look at the topic of small-scale secessionist movements. While the subject often provokes joking, and many of the microstate examples here are in fact jokes, the Lonely Planet writers treat the "nations" and their founders with a refreshing degree of respect that makes reading this guide much less tedious that it could have been had the whole thing been doused in irony or contempt. That's one of the key things I noticed about this book, and I appreciated it.

Many of the micronations described here were formed as political protests. But others are, or claim to be, the reassertion of ancient claims (British West Florida, for example), art installations (the Republic of Kugelmugel), or the product of TV shows (Lovely). A few -- like Seborga or Sealand -- could even be said to exist de jure. So while you may be tempted to read this just for fun, and to check out the nuts who declare themselves princes or grand dukes, there are actually some very interesting questions of law and history underlying what's happening here. Certainly, for those of us inclined to accept Ludwig von Mises' argument that "whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory, whether it be a single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts, make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time, but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state, their wishes are to be respected and complied with" (Liberalism, 1927), carrying that principle down to the neighborhood or household level only seems to make sense. (That some of these micronationalists claim large sections of land occupied by other, presumably nonconsenting, "citizens," is more problematic). As founder of the Kingdom of Cascadia, a thought experiment with no pretensions to reality but related to the "Cascadias" here discussed on page 105, it certainly makes sense to me.

All that to say, this is a fun, well-written, and well-documented book that makes for some entertaining browsing. It also shows an impressive level of participation on the part of the micronationalists profiled, which is to Lonely Planet's credit. Maybe it won't turn you into a secessionist, but there are worse things than that.

This book was fun! I picked it up and couldn't quit reading it. And I could even re-read it and re-read it. This book is very colorful and its exciting to see every type of little nations imaginable. There are legitimate ones like the Snake Hill Province in Australia. Fun ones like Molossia in a home and backyard of Nevada. Some are making endeavors now for greater recognition, such as the Hutt River Province, also in Australia and a similar endeavor on an island near Seattle, trapped in the center of a lake, seeking to become the free Trumania.

You'll hear of the Kingdom of Romkerall landlocked on all sides by Germany. And guess what? This tiny kingdom actually has a legitimate royal line going back centuries. You'll disover the hippy friendly places of Christiania off the coast of Holland, and Akhzivland off the coast of Israel where peace reigns.

And the discussion of Gays getting their own island or nation. Well, guess what, it's true. Having the most colorful of all the flags, the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands is once again off the coast of Australia, a nation where Gays and Lesbians may marry and be given in marriage. Though a happy little place, the start of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom toutss a politically courageous story, when, in protest of the ban on gay marriage, Gays and Lesbians claimed a place to call their own. This book is just fun. Fun, Fun, Fun!

There is some very interesting stuff in here, but probably not enough to warrant a whole book. Only the first 1/3 deals with true micronations, the rest is fluff.

A pretty funny book, but it makes you wonder about some of these people. Sealand I could see, after all it was in (at the time) unclaimed territory but some of these "countries" (one an apartment, another a camper) are absurd to the point of imbecility. Someone declared their bedroom an independent state when they were eight? OK. But they never outgrew that? Weird.

Includes website addresses and sidebars on micronational topics.