The Hidden Globe drops Oct. 8!

Pre-order links, gift tips, and more!

Loyal readers: I'm sorry for the radio silence. It's been a hectic couple of years— a new baby, a move from New York to Ann Arbor and back, and smaller stuff like incessant daycare plagues and reporting trips to northern Michigan and the China-Lao border have kept me too busy to write regular updates.

I’ve also been putting the final touches on THE HIDDEN GLOBE, which now has a cover and a publication date of October 8, 2024. It’s the result of four years of writing, thinking and talking, and if you like Terra Nullius, you will LOVE the book. It has tons of new stories from weird jurisdictions from around the world (and beyond!), fresh insights into who built this world, and even some thoughts on what we can do to make it better.

The subtitle alludes to a major theme in the book—how money reshapes borders—but THE HIDDEN GLOBE is about so much more. There’s poetry, literature, and law; the world’s most interesting lawyer, consultant, and statesmen; and a 12,000 word elegy for a Soviet cruise ship. I can’t wait for you all to read it!

In the meantime, there’s one simple thing you can all do to help me out: pre-order the book. You can do it through Amazon, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Powells, Hudson Booksellers, Target and Walmart. If you order a copy from every single one, I will buy you dinner. You can also go down to your local bookstore and/or library and ask them to order copies.

Here are pre-order links for my fellow Canadians and for the UK, where it will be published in Feb 2025. The book will also be translated, but I’m still waiting on the details.

Pre-orders are one of the metrics that can really move the needle when it comes to book sales and promotion. And I really think this book could have a big audience, if we play our cards right. So please pre-order, and spread the word, and get in touch with me directly if you want to organize an event or have me speak at your school or workplace.

You might also consider getting an extra copy or two for friends, business associates, or family members.

THE HIDDEN GLOBE is for everyone but it is especially for:

• international wo/men of mystery

• uncles who love factoids

• Freakonomics fans and Freakonomics haters (!)

• unreconstructed dorm-room philosophers

• pirates, sailors and seasteaders

• employees of international organizations

• your friend who won’t stop talking about alien life

• libertarians

• anti-libertarians

• third culture kids (you know who you are!)

• people who pretended to read Thomas Piketty

Tomorrow, I’m off to another kind of weird jurisdiction*: Club Med. See you all on the other side.

* de facto, not de jure.