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A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears) Hardcover – September 15, 2020

by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (Author)

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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.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

PublicAffairs
Publication date

September 15, 2020
Dimensions

6.35 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

1541788516
ISBN-13

978-1541788510
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

“Government isn’t ruining capitalism. Capitalism is ruining government. I think that’s kind of obvious,” he says. “If you take capitalism out of government you get simple public representation. If you take government out of capitalism, you get slavery.”
Highlighted by 242 Kindle readers
“What’s the endgame of capitalism, if not a big fat white man sitting on top of a pile of bloody bones with no one around him, crying because nobody’s around to make him a sandwich?”
Highlighted by 202 Kindle readers

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] witty and precisely observed debut....Hongoltz-Hetling skillfully probes shortcomings and ironies in the libertarian philosophy....The result is an entertaining and incisive portrait of political ideology run amok."
―Publishers Weekly

"An entertaining sendup of idealistic politics and the fatal flaws of overweening self-interest."
―Kirkus

"[Hongoltz-Hetling] reconstructs a remarkable, and remarkably strange, episode in recent history....The resulting narrative is simultaneously hilarious, poignant, and deeply unsettling."
―The New Republic

"Every once in a while, a book comes along that is so darkly comedic, with such a defined sense of place and filled with characters that range from the fascinating to the bizarre to the earnest, that partway through reading, it hits you: This has got to become a Coen brothers movie...Hongoltz-Hetling is a master of the turn of phrase. His voice is breezy and critical, with a finely tuned eye aimed at the absurdities as well as at the earnestness of the Free Town Project."
―Star Tribune

"Since the beginning, Americans have been fighting about the balance between individual liberty and the common good. Hongoltz-Hetling shows what can happen when one rural New Hampshire town went to the libertarian extreme in this madcap tale that zig-zags between tragedy and farce, with the possibility of being eaten."―Colin Woodard, New York Times-bestselling author of American Nations and Union

"A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is a finely drawn portrait of one freedom-loving town, and a joyful romp through the dark corners of the American psyche. Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a gifted writer with a high-powered radar for the strange details of American life. He skillfully portrays the dreamers and eccentrics who populate Grafton, and the bears lurking just beyond its treelines. At turns hilarious and alarming, this story had me firmly in its jaws from the opening pages."―Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind

"Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling's wild and wonderful blend of small-town America and large-scale ideals, imparted with humor and insight reminiscent of Sarah Vowell and Bill Bryson, is an unpredictable and endlessly fascinating feat of immersive reporting, filled with singular characters and doughnut-eating bears."―Michael Finkel, bestselling author of The Stranger in the Woods

“An alarming, eyebrow-raising and often hilarious true life tale of what happens when a fringe political ideology clashes with the real world, in ways which incorporate economics, conservation, zoology, parasitology, environmentalism, various types of psychology and animal behaviour studies, and more.”―BBC Science Focus

About the Author

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won a George Polk Award, and been voted Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press association, among numerous other honors. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, USA Today, Popular Science, Atavist Magazine, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Associated Press, and elsewhere. He lives in Vermont.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs (September 15, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1541788516
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1541788510
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.35 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #463,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #41 in Libertarianism
- #489 in Human Geography (Books)
- #7,034 in U.S. State & Local History

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Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

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Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He has been named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, won a George Polk Award, and been voted Journalist of the Year by the Maine Press association, among numerous other honors.

His work has appeared in Foreign Policy, USA Today, Popular Science, Atavist Magazine, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the Associated Press, and elsewhere.

He lives in New England.

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Mrs. D.

Funny and informative with a politically neutral tone

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2024

Verified Purchase

The author's narrative style of writing is engaging, and he's funny, too. I heard about the Free Town Project a couple of years ago, but until now I had only been able to find an article here and there about the lack of regulations that led to bears digging through trash and terrorizing the residents. He does a great job of delving into the Free Town Project from beginning to end, and describing what worked and what didn't (there's a lot that didn't). His tone is politically neutral, and his book gave me a lot to think about. I highly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

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kiteblues

If the title intrigues you, it will be worth the read.

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed this book and recommend it as a thoughtful and entertaining current affairs tale. I didn’t know what to expect and was a little surprised at first when the author placed himself directly into the story like a reporter might (or might avoid). But I quickly got comfortable with the style and found the depth of research reassuring.

The story of the Libertarian movement in Grafton, New Hampshire followed a somewhat predictable rise and fall: early enthusiasm giving way to a collapse under its own anarchic weight.

For someone like me who enjoys the sociological and systems elements of society, it’s a great case study. Also, the characters were quite colorful and vividly depicted.

Turns out a movement centered on “personal liberty” has a hard time getting its followers to cooperate and actually make it happen; largely because everyone’s definition of the goal is different.

It seems like most of the “Free Town” migrants weren’t interested in total freedom but wanted to enjoy the benefits of a civil society while being exempt from paying the taxes that support that society, and exempt from specific laws that prohibit their personal peccadillos.

The book chronicles them objecting to taxes, challenging authority with lawsuits at every turn, and generally using their selfish assholery to reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of anyone working to build a mutually supported and mutually beneficial society.

It was an inexorable race to the bottom made especially obvious by comparison to neighboring towns.

The book took an unexpected turn in suggesting a gut parasite acquired from cats may be contributing to increased risk-taking behavior in both bears and humans. But the way it’s told is surprisingly compelling and I can see why the author included it.

I absolutely love the word play built into a very memorable page in Book Two, Chapter Nine of the September 2021 paperback edition. What seemed like an innocent juxtaposition was followed by another and then confirmed as intentional with yet another. In re-reading for these notes, I now see at least four! Very clever.

18 people found this helpful

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Rita Reader Maid

Libertarians aren't so smart after all.

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024

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Great book! Makes it very clear what a real life 'libertarian' take over of a small New Hampshire town looks like. Libertarians tend to promote themselves as being very smart but this book tells what happens when abstract political theory meets reality.

One person found this helpful

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Marianne Bergenholtz

Interesting, well written, multiple interviews

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2024

Verified Purchase

Interesting portrayal of libertarians in Grafton and NH and their effects on local governments. Well written. Well researched by a reporter.

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David Hajicek

Interesting bear problems

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024

Verified Purchase

A historically accurate reporting of how some libertarians in New Hampshire had problems dealing with the bears - some of the problems caused by themselves. It is written with some humor and sympathy.

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Amazon Customer

A book that never quite makes a point, but really doesn't need to

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

This afternoon I finished reading this well crafted work. And then I spent an an hour reading other reader reviews. I can't help but find myself unsure how to capture my feelings on the book as I reconcile the opinions of those other reviewers before. I don't often review books, but I find myself compelled to talk about this one.

TL,DR: I loved it.

I'd like to talk about what this book isn't. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is not a deeply explored critique of libertarian politics. It isn't a deep assertion that libertarian policies are a sole source of blame for the bear problems in a small New Hampshire town. And it is a shame that it feels marketed as such. The story doesn't end by trying to make a grandiose point or shame you into adopting an ideology that wasn't yours before reading.

Hongoltz-Hetling's book is a fascinating story of a small town rich in history. A town with profoundly interesting people whose stories deserve to be told. Intermixed in two overarching narratives - the Free Town movement and the out of control bears, the author takes the time to tell the stories of the people who make up this fascinating town, and the history behind it.

I can't recommend this book enough. It is an honest book about an interesting town and its interesting inhabitants. While the author doesn't hesitate to voice his leanings on an issue or his feelings during an interaction, he doesn't condemn any those whom he observes.

My only critique of the book is a small chapter in which the author muses (with a lack of scientific rigor) about a possible ailment of the community at large. Fleeting thoughts consider whether toxoplasmosis, a (common) parasite driven infection that leads to increased impulsivity and aggression, might be central to either the bear or human behavior observed in Grafton. While it is an interesting consideration, it is the type of pseudo-intellectualism better left to experts.

9 people found this helpful

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cferguson

Disturbing and Hilarious

Reviewed in Canada on July 2, 2022

Verified Purchase

A well written novel that was both disturbing and hilarious at the same time. A stark reminder of what can happen to a community when it narrowly focuses on individual self interest and not on the well being of the community as a whole.