From White River Press & the Center for Research on Vermont 306 pages
“a hard book to put down and
when you do you keep on thinking…” - Melinda Moulton
“a rollicking political and social history of Vermont…”
- Sasha Abramsky
“…an engaging read that helps explain what makes Vermont Vermont.
- Seven Days
“an effective and invaluable learning tool…” - Jim DeFilippi
“A fascinating and energetic account of the history of Vermont…”
- Susan DeMasi
“For readers new to Vermont history, this book will introduce key figures and important events that helped create the state they know today. For readers steeped in Vermont history, the book’s most rewarding parts will probably come in later chapters, where Guma draws from his decades of reporting to offer insights into some of the major political actors and movements from the late 1960s to the present.” — Mark Bushnell, Vermont History
Between the Lines, Interview with Scott Harris (click)
A veteran journalist from Vermont surveys the state’s history through the lens of social movements in this nonfiction book.
As a community organizer, newspaper editor, and journalist in Vermont since the late 1960s, Guma has long monitored the pulse of the people and movements that have shaped the Green Mountain State. In this history of Vermont’s popular movements, he seeks to “revisit Vermont’s past with fresh eyes” and to “reclaim stories lost, distorted or buried along the way.” While analyzing the progressive forces and nonpartisan independence that gave rise to Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders, the book is also careful to highlight Vermont’s “blind spots and dark corners,” noting, for instance, that no woman has ever represented the state in Washington, D.C.
Divided into three parts that chronologically trace Vermont’s history, the volume focuses on the 18th and 19th centuries in the first section, juxtaposing the state’s progressive credentials (it was, for example, the first colony to ban slavery during the American Revolution) with its record of violence toward Indigenous people and close relationship with the racist eugenics movement.
Part 2 looks at the early 20th century and the role of localism and fierce independence that gave rise to the nonpartisan progressive election of James Burke as the long-standing mayor of Burlington. Even Vermont’s conservative establishment often bucked its national party, such as the state’s stalwart Republican United States Sen. Ralph Flanders, who joined Democrats in denouncing Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.
The book’s final section centers on movements since World War II, with a particularly strong dissection of the rise of Howard Dean and Sanders as two of the country’s most progressive voices. The volume combines the engaging, fast-paced writing style of a seasoned journalist with the craft of a skilled historian who has full command of historiographical trends and archival sources. Guma’s accessible yet expert prose is accompanied by ample historical photographs, newspaper clippings, and maps. Though occasional tangents distract from its narrative timeline, this work delivers a definitive examination of how average people in one of the nation’s smallest states have influenced and continued to shape American history.
A well-written and nuanced history of Vermont’s social movements.
The Green Mountain Boys used many types of force to
impose their will... from page 32
Vermont's independent streak goes way back. In the fourth chapter of his history of the state, author Greg Guma details how a "struggle for sovereignty and self-government" drove the rebellious behavior of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, leading to Vermont's stint as an independent republic.
Guma has written about the state and its politics for more than 50 years, first for the Bennington Banner and later as an editor of the Vanguard Press. He uses that experience to investigate the state's values — what he calls "the Vermont Way" — through the actions of its Indigenous people, revolutionary leaders, feminist pioneers, Vermont-born presidents and modern political figures.
The book is an expanded version of Guma's "Green Mountain Politics: Restless Spirits, Popular Movements," published online in 2017, and includes a Bernie Sanders-focused chapter that recaps and updates information from his 1989 book, The People's Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution.
With detailed archival research — and Guma's own reporting — it's an engaging read that helps explain what makes Vermont Vermont.
— Jordan Barry, Seven Days
If, when you think of Vermont, you only conjure bucolic rolling hills, Bernie Sanders, Ben & Jerry’s, and, if you’re historically minded, Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys, do yourself a favor and get a copy of Restless Spirits & Popular Movements: A Vermont History by Greg Guma.
This is a fascinating and energetic account of the history of Vermont, with particular attention to progressive politics and movements. Painstakingly researched, it provides exhaustive (but not exhausting) coverage of what makes the state special, tying the past and the present together.
The state that could have given us our first socialist president has a history marked by independent politics, social justice reformers, and various progressive movements. Guma covers backroom political machinations, from leftist radicals to conservatives—yes, there were long periods of Republican governance and conservative influencers— almost as if he were secreted away in those backrooms. Bernie Sanders may be the most well known progressive Vermonter, but he certainly isn’t the first.
The author brings considerable journalistic, non-fiction and creative writing experiences and proficiencies to Restless Spirits & Popular Movements. Guma worked as a professional journalist in Vermont beginning in the 1970s, and tackled some of these same topics in newspapers, magazines, mass media and notable books such as the People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution. While his deep interest and affection for the state comes through, he doesn’t ignore the darker parts of Vermont’s history. This includes the forced sterilization of some in the indigenous community and the slow progress towards women’s rights. (Guma points out that as of this writing, a woman has never represented the state in Congress.)
On the opposite side he tells of more enlightened, historic claims, including the fact that Vermont was the first state to ban slavery.
Then there are curious, but noteworthy particulars that had nationwide impact. These include stories about Matthew Lyon, a popular but unruly Vermont Congressman arrested for sedition and known for spitting in another Congressman’s face. Most auspiciously, Lyons cast the deciding vote in the 1800 Presidential election (which after an electoral tie went to the House of Representatives), electing Thomas Jefferson, not Aaron Burr, as President. Another significant move by a Vermont official came in the 1950s, when U.S. Senator Ralph Flanders went on the offensive against Joseph McCarthy, helping to break the latter’s stronghold.
Guma tells of the growth of labor unions, various unexpected political alliances, and of unusual religious movements, including one that predicted the end of the world and led followers to leave their crops to whither in the field. Overall, Guma provides a historical mosaic of intriguing people, from the famous to the forgotten, and their stories. Together these accounts reveal how progressive ideals, important not only to Vermont but to the nation, were shaped over a few hundred years.
— Susan DeMasi, Author of Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force of the New Deal Federal Writers' Project
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