Book Description
With its small native population, proximity to major metropolitan areas, and bucolic rural beauty, Vermont was fated to be a tourist mecca, forever associated in the popular imagination with maple syrup, fall colors, and ski bunnies. Tourism, for good and ill, has always been the decisive factor in the conception of rural Vermont. What is surprising, however, is the degree to which we have accepted this notion of rural Vermont as a somehow timeless entity. Blake Harrison's rich and rewarding study instead presents the construction of Vermont's landscape as a complex and ever-changing dynamic informed by progressive, modernist, and reformist thought, competing views of economic expansion, rural and urban prejudice and social exclusion, and (more recently) by land use planning and environmentalism. This broad-based study includes the early history of Vermont tourism, the concomitant abandonment of farms with the rise of the summer home, the creation of an "unspoiled" Vermont (from billboards, at least), the impact of Vermont's ski industry on tradition-bound tourism, and later efforts to legislate growth and protect an increasingly static ideal of a rural Vermont.

While grounded within a specific Vermont view, Harrison has much to contribute to broader studies of rural places, tourism, and landscapes in American culture. His analysis of how physical landscapes affect and are affected by our imagined landscape, and the insight afforded by his juxtaposition of leisure and labor, will deeply inform our understanding of rural tourist landscapes for years to come. This is a truly interdisciplinary work that will satisfy and challenge historians and geographers alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A colorful and informative look at the Green Mountain State
Vermont is one of the original 13 Colonies that was not one of the original 13 Colonies (Maine is the other one of the Mark and Luke of states).Officially Vermont is the 14th state and if you go check out the reverse of the Vermont quarter issued in 2001 you will see a sugar maple being tapped.When you get to the first chapter in Ann Heinrichs' "Vermont" for the America the Beautiful series you will see pictures of a sugar maple and the tapping of maple trees to collect sap.So, this is the third volume in this series I have checked out and the streak of having the first color picture in these books show the same thing as the state's quarter is intact.What more proof would you need than that to prove that something was iconic?

After the introduction the next three chapters are devoted to the history of Vermont.Chapter Two, "Out of the Wilderness" begins with the native of the Algonquin language group that settled the area and ends with Vermont becoming a state after the American Revolution.Chapter Three, "Growing Up," covers the 19th-century including native son Chester A. Arthur becoming the 21st President.Chapter Four, "Into the Modern Age," details the 20th century, when Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President.After the chapters on Vermont history the rest of the book covers the standard areas of a geography course.Chapter Five, "The Abundant Land" deals with geographical features, including the majestic old sugar maple in Dorset known as the Spirit of American that may be 400 years old, and Vermont's flora and fauna.Chapter Six, "Hills and Valleys, Villages and Towns," divides the state into the Northeast Kingdom, Central Vermont (home of the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe), the largest city of Burlington, Lake Champlain and the Lower Champlain Valley, the Western Slopes, and the Southeast.This is Heinrichs' best chapter, because you get a clear sense of how a state that is only 6,615 square miles in total area can have so many distinct geographical regions.

Chapter Seven, "Democracy at Work," is about the state's politics, such as the Freeman's Oath that all Vermont voters have to make and including all of the State symbols, from the State bird (Hermit thrush) and State tree (Sugar maple) to the State beverage (Milk) and State mineral (Talc).You also get the words to "These Green Mountains," Vermont's State Song since 1999.Vermont's economy is covered in Chapter Eight, "Making a Living," where you can add Ben & Jerry's ice cream to maple syrup as the most important things sold. Plus, Vermont was the last state to let Wal-Mart build a store and it was on the state's terms: it had to be in a city shopping center.Chapter Nine, "People Who Built Vermont," looks at the state's population, while Chapter Ten, "Food for the Soul," covers the cultural aspects of the state, from the poetry of Robert Frost and the paintings of Norman Rockwell to all the fun things to do on snow.

This look at "Vermont" is filled with full-color photographs, original maps, and lots of sidebars than focus on people like Ethan Allen and Stephen A. Douglas, places like the Green Mountain National Forest and the Shelburne Museum, and other interesting things like a recipe for Maple Oatmeal Drops and the song "Moonlight in Vermont."The back of the volume includes a Timeline comparing U.S. and Vermont state history, several pages of Fast Facts, and where To Find Out More from books, organizations, and Internet sites.Overall, the key aspect of these America the Beatiful, Second Series volumes is that they are really quite tourist-friendly. ... Read more

Book Description
Winner of the annual Fred B. Kniffen Book Award presented by the Pioneer America Society (PAS). This award is given to the best new book published about the North American cultural landscape., Winner of SPNEA’s Book Prize for the year 2000 presented by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA). This award is given to the book that best advances the understanding of the architecture, landscape and material culture of New England and the United States from the seventeenth century to the present published in 2000., Winner of a Vermont Book Professionals Association Milestone Award 2000 and Winner of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s 2001 Media Award

In this book Jan Albers examines the history--natural, environmental, social, and ultimately human--of one of America's most cherished landscapes: Vermont.

Albers shows how Vermont has come to stand for the ideal of unspoiled rural community, examining both the basis of the state's pastoral image and the equally real toll taken by the pressure of human hands on the land. She begins with the relatively light touch of Vermont's Native Americans, then shows how European settlers--armed with a conviction that their claim to the land was "a God-given right"--shaped the landscape both to meet economic needs and to satisfy philosophical beliefs. The often turbulent result: a conflict between practical requirements and romantic ideals that has persisted to this day.

Making lively use of contemporary accounts, advertisements, maps, landscape paintings, and vintage photographs, Albers delves into the stories and personalities behind the development of a succession of Vermont landscapes. She observes the growth of communities from tiny settlements to picturesque villages to bustling cities; traces the development of agriculture, forestry, mining, industry, and the influence of burgeoning technology; and proceeds to the growth of environmental consciousness, aided by both private initiative and governmental regulation. She reveals how as community strengthens, so does responsible stewardship of the land.

Albers shows that like any landscape, the Vermont landscape reflects the human decisions that have been made about it--and that the more a community understands about how such decisions have been made, the better will be its future decisions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Interesting choice of topic
As an English Professor, I often try to root out the "story behind the story".Jan Albers holds a PhD from Yale, but fails to mention a background in newspaper journalism.How does one detect such a hidden past?By her consistent omission of the Oxford, or "serial" comma in her writing.

Newspaper writers often omit the final comma preceding the "and" in a series of items in a sentence to save precious column inches, thus:

"Joe had eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast."

Whereas the rest of the literary world generally includes commas to separate three or more words, phrases, or clauses written in a series, thus:

"Joe had eggs, bacon, and toast for breakfast."

Thus, I can but conclude the author's style was strongly influenced by a background in newspaper journalism.

Excellent book, just the same.History has long ignored the stage upon which the play was set.

Great Book
This is a fantastic book for those who love Vermont and the history of the land and environment.It's informative - has great photos and is just a joy to pick up at any time to take a browse.I highly recommened it.

Important, topical and beautiful.
Rarely has a volume of such physical grace and beauty contained such an important and topical message. I picked up my copy after returning to Vermont for a long weekend, and found the text both forceful, dynamic and informative, artistically combined with beautiful illustrations. Not a hagiography, and avoiding the temptation to airbrush the realities of Vermont into a pastiche of the country idyll in Yankee New England, Jan Albers has created an immensely readable but intellectually rigorous study of the development and land-use choices that Vermonters have made since the Abenaki were disturbed by white settlers.

This alone would be enough to qualify "Hands on the Land" for a place on the bookshelves of students of land-use and concerned citizens in rural and semi-rural areas everywhere. For a UK audience, the impact of sheep farming vs. cattle grazing (which denuded the forests of Vermont in the manner of the North York moors in the later 19th Century) only adds interest. That this study is so accessible and lavishly illustrated, (much in the style of the latest offerings from the OUP History of England series) commends it to the broadest possible audience. In fact, I was so taken with this that I bought two - one for my mother, a native and transplanted Vermonter, and one for me - your bookshelf will be a richer and happier place with a copy!

Glad I Read This
This remarkable book is essentially a history of Vermont told from the perspective of the relationship between human beings and the physical environment, i.e. how succeeding generations have tried to make a living out of a surprisingly inhospitable bit of territory.This provides useful lessons, as other reviewers note, on public policy and land use, but for me it was more interesting as a uniquely revealing approach to social and economic history.Among other revelations, the book highlights the fact that the popular image of Vermont as a throwback to an idyllic yesteryear is a recent creation promulgated to fuel the state's latest and arguably most successful land use ever -- tourism.The reality has been rather different.The book is easy to read, with pictures and graphics that contribute to the knowledge being conveyed.The overall conception would be worthy of emulation by historians and planners addressing other regions or periods.

Nice Text book
If a person is looking for a text book this is a great one. It has a lot on photos, graphics and stories.But it is for reading at a desk, not on a plane.

I like it. Now I'm going to be a Vermont Historian ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Alabama : Atlas of Historical County Boundaries
If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself. ... Read more

Book Description
"Set aside your Bella Tuscanys and Year in Provences for a different kind of travel book. Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa puts a walking stick in your hand and Marsh's Man and Nature in your knapsack, exploring how Italians have managed their natural and cultural heritage in ways that sustain both. John Elder's poetic meditations on land and life demonstrate that only by searching beyond our familiar boundaries can we discover better ways of living back at home." -- Marcus Hall, author of Earth Repair: A Transatlantic History of Environmental Restoration

"This collaboration -- between George Perkins Marsh and John Elder, between Vermont and Italy, between maple and olive -- is one of the smartest, soundest, deepest books about the relationship between people and nature that I've ever read. It will be a classic." -- Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

"Elder's impassioned pilgrimage shows us how to delight in messy wilderness, to secure a curative habitation of the world, and, with Marsh, to lend ecological nous to our gravest task: knowing ourselves and respecting one another. Let the maple seeds and olive stones of Elder's visionary harvest restore to us a reflective and redemptory future." -- from the foreword by David Lowenthal

The pivotal figure in Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa is the nineteenth-century diplomat and writer George Perkins Marsh, generally regarded as America's first environmentalist. Like Elder, Marsh was a Vermonter, and his diplomatic career took him for some years to Italy, where, witnessing the ecological devastation wrought upon the landscape by runaway deforestation and the plundering of other natural resources, he was moved to produce his famous manifesto, Man and Nature. Marsh drew parallels between the despoiled Italian environment and his home landscape of Vermont, warning that the latter was vulnerable to ecological woes of a similar magnitude if not carefully maintained and protected. In short, his was a prescient voice for stewardship.

Elder follows in Marsh's footsteps along a trajectory running from Vermont to Italy, and at length fetches up at the managed forest of Vallombrosa. Punctuated throughout with learned and genial considerations of the poetry of Wordsworth, Basho, Dante, and Frost, Elder's narrative takes up issues of sustainability as practiced locally, reports on family doings, and returns finally -- as did Marsh's -- to Vermont, where he measures traditional stewardship values against more aggressive conservation-oriented measures such as the expansion of wilderness areas.

John Elder, Professor of English and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, is the author of Reading the Mountains of Home and The Frog Run.

Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism ... Read more