For American Peasant Subscribers

Why are you paying to read this? Good question.

This is the first post behind the paywall. You paid for this. Let's talk about that.

I've long resisted paywalls. When I started blogging in 2005, my goal was to keep my electronic writing free for everyone. And when I made a physical thing – a book, a magazine, a tool – then that's what would cost money.

I kept that up for 17 years. I've written thousands of blog entries – some of them useful – that are still floating out there free for the reading. My Lost Art Press blog will remain free for everyone, now and into the future.

So, what is this animal, "The American Peasant?" When I write a book, I generate an insane amount of information that gets boiled down to about 70,000 words. A lot of this information is useful and compelling. There's just not room for it in the printed thingy. Perhaps it's tangential to the book's premise. Or it's just "off" in some way – the tone or topic might be too obscure or weird.

Example: When I wrote "The Anarchist's Tool Chest," I did months of research o…