New Hampshire
Article
New Hampshire is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 6 times across 6 issues between May 21, 2021 and March 11, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as “based on the New Hampshire town in which the Americans dictated its terms to the Allies in 1944”; “They chose New Hampshire, 5000 people moved”; “Montenegro has fewer people than New Hampshire”. It most often appears alongside Europe, Washington, Australia.
Metadata
- Category: Places
- Mention count: 6
- Issue count: 6
- First seen: May 21, 2021
- Last seen: March 11, 2026
Appears In
- Your Book Review: The Accidental Superpower
- Model City Monday
- Lockdown Effectiveness: Much More Than You Wanted To Know
- Meetups Everywhere Spring 2025: Times & Places
- Should Strong Gods Bet On GDP?
- Last Rights
Related Pages
-
- Europe (4 shared issues)
-
- Washington (4 shared issues)
-
- Australia (3 shared issues)
-
- Brazil (3 shared issues)
-
- France (3 shared issues)
-
- Hong Kong (3 shared issues)
-
- Oregon (3 shared issues)
-
- Texas (3 shared issues)
-
- Argentina (2 shared issues)
-
- Arkansas (2 shared issues)
-
- Baltimore (2 shared issues)
-
- Barcelona (2 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
American empire was rejected out of an unwillingness to have a forever-war of occupation that would have been impractical to wage against the Soviets. Instead, America offers a deal that is “one of the great strategic gambits in history.” The deal offered benefits not only to England, France, and the Allies, but also to Japan and Germany that they couldn’t have even hoped to achieve had they won the war.6 Zeihan refers to this deal as “free trade” and “Bretton Woods,” based on the New Hampshire town in which the Americans dictated its terms to the Allies in 1944. It would let everyone sell into the best and last market in the world, with their commerce protected by the world’s only real navy, and all that America asked in return was the provision of cannon fodder against Soviet invasions. That may not have been such a big ask, as they may have lost their independence to such invasions without American assistance anyway. The deal was offered in pursuit of the strategic goal of containing the Soviets, presumably to avoid having them directly threaten Americans.
Inline links: 6
Maybe you've heard of the Free State Project. Some American libertarians, tired of always losing at everything, decided to all move to the same state, so they could be a substantial part of that state's population and maybe win some elections or at least be able to commiserate with each other in person. They chose New Hampshire, 5000 people moved (with 15000 more claiming they'll move eventually) and they managed to elect a dozen or so state representatives (including a friend of mine who has some amazing stories). In general the project seems to have gone well, plus or minus some bear-related snafus.
Inline links: Free State Project, bear-related snafus
Still, it is a cool idea. Having a lot of influence in a country seems better than having a lot of influence in a US state. Montenegro has fewer people than New Hampshire. And digital nomadism and the aftereffects of the pandemic are making it increasingly easy to move places.
But it’s also worth mentioning that US states that seemed kind of like Scandinavia (northern, forested, liberal) also had the lowest number of coronavirus cases in the continental US - #1 through #5 were Vermont, Oregon, Maine, Washington, and New Hampshire. And this isn’t clearly related to household size, so maybe something else is going on.
Inline links: isn’t clearly related to household size
Contact: Jonathan Ray Contact Info: ray[period]jonathan[period]w[a t]gmail[period]com Time: Saturday, May 3rd, 11:00 AM Location: California Pizza Kitchen at Town Square. With a big ACX sign. Coordinates: https://plus.codes/85863R9F+6W Group Link: https://discord.gg/Awm [remove this bit] EgW2Q6r New Hampshire HANOVER Contact: Rhea Contact Info: rheakarty[a t]gmail[perio d]com Time: Saturday, May 3, 12:30 PM Location: We will meet at Dartmouth College's old golf course (7 Hilton Field Rd). To the right of a small parking lot there, is a small cabin-- which is where we will meet. I will have a sign that says ACX MEETUP. For those driving: There is parking there. And in the unlikely case that it fills up there is free parking in the town on weekends I think and the Dewey Field Lot is near by. If the group if up for it, we may take a walk, but I will try to leave a note if we do in this location. Coordinates: https://plus.codes/87M9PP78+52 Group Link: I will try to send emails to those who will out an RSVP. Here is the invite to a WhatsApp group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Epl [remove this bit] 1X9YAvQp4gq8ThvNksP Additional Notes: Feel free to bring kids/dogs. RSVPs would be great (but not required)! Here is a link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfafnS45O7Sz6exPzvavSV1UkrGkuNp0tLD4F0yNIBGTVARRg/viewform?usp=sharing
The Free State Project: some libertarians made a deal that if enough other libertarians agreed, they would all move to New Hampshire and try to turn it into a libertarian paradise. They got about 20,000 people on board; the results ranged from building entirely new libertarian towns in the forest, to buying homes in Portsmouth or Manchester and keeping in touch with their libertarian friends. 7/10.
Libertarians/Communists/Greens/etc: Third parties are at their nadir right now. Zero state or national legislative seats are currently occupied by third parties, which is historically unusual. But increasing the size of Congress would give a shot in the arm to third parties. Getting 25,000 people to vote for you seems much more doable, especially if the whole party goes all-in on one seat. And it only takes one. I gotta believe that the Libertarians could win a Congressional seat in New Hampshire. The Communists could win one in Seattle. And once you get one seat, then it’s off to the races. Getting national recognition as one of 6,641 is really hard - joining or forming a third party is the kind of thing that gets you press. This is speculation, I have no data to back it up, but I fully expect that we would see a big upshot in third party representation and membership. The CAA is exactly what the Libertarians need to break out of their funk.