Adventure Capitalism

• About the book

Imagine a capitalist paradise. An island utopia governed solely by the rules of the market and inspired by the fictions of Ayn Rand and Robinson Crusoe. Your own private archipelago. Sound far-fetched? It may not be. The past half-century is littered with the remains of such experiments in what Raymond Craib calls 'libertarian exit'. Often dismissed as little more than the dreams of crazy, rich Caucasians or - in the words of libertarian godfather Murray Rothbard - 'cockamamie stunts,' exit strategies were tried out from the southwest Pacific to the Caribbean, from the North Sea to the high seas, and often with dire consequences for local inhabitants. Taking the activities of Nevada libertarian, land developer, and coin dealer Michael Oliver as a case in point, and based on research in archives in the US, the UK, and Vanuatu, as well as in FBI files acquired through the Freedom of Information Act, Craib explores in careful detail the ideology and practice of libertarian exit and its p