By Paul M. Searls

At the turn of the 20th Century, state leaders believed Vermont’s overwhelmingly rural character was both a distressing problem to be solved, and the state’s greatest asset. All Vermonters wanted to preserve the things they saw as best about life in the state. All Vermonters wanted to embrace the changes they felt would improve their lives. The question of what and how to preserve, and what and how to embrace, was the challenge around which the state’s twentieth-century history revolved. Paul Searls examines the large forces at work in this era by tracing two distinct, interrelated stories that illuminate the paradox that defined Vermont in the twentieth century and continue to shape it today.

Vermont Historical Society, 2019