The Vermont Way

A fresh look at a remarkable place

GREEN MOUNTAIN POLITICS

Restless Spirits, Popular Movements

From Ethan Allen to Bernie Sanders, Vermont has forged a separate path as a small, independent state with a strong sense of how to preserve its basic traditions while changing with the times. Green Mountain Politics revisits its unique story through movements and memorable people who have created the delicate balance of sovereignty and solidarity, political independence and mutual aid known as the Vermont Way. The journey features a memorable cast of characters.

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Many episodes have also been released on other websites, as well as in live presentations. The project also includes rare photos, dramatic stories and an episode from The Vermont Movie. Latest — Culture War in Bennington; Birth of the NPAs 2017 additions -- Cleaning up the World: Vermont's First Earth Day, Earth Day 1990: Making Peace with the Planet and Dark Shadows in Vermont's Past. Also check out Class Struggle: From Socialism to the American Plan and How Traditions and Values Have Defined the Vermont Way (Green Mountain Noise, 2VR, Spring 2014) Publishing partners include VTDigger, Center for Global Research, Second Vermont Republic, ZNet, and Toward Freedom.

PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS
Monograph available as PDF

What is the Vermont Way? The term has been used to describe everything from the traditional way to make maple syrup and smart farming in general to a political campaign agenda and the ability to make something out of almost nothing. Sometimes it extends into the phrase “the Vermont way of life.” When he left the Republican Party Jim Jeffords said, “Independence is the Vermont Way.” In her autobiography Consuelo Northrup Bailey, the first female attorney admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court and the first female lieutenant governor in the nation, said the character of Vermont was defined by “everyday, common, honest people who unknowingly salted down the Vermont way of life with a flavor peculiar only to the Green Mountains.”

"Serenade in Green"

Green Mountain Politics describes the state’s delicate dance of sovereignty and solidarity, independence and mutual aid. The subtitle refers to the focus on political, economic and social events, trends and personalities. Covering centuries, this transmedia project features unique stories, sketches of key figures, and original analysis that explains how the Vermont Way evolved. The following installments are available:

The Vermont Way Is Hard to Define

The Path to Marriage Equality VTDigger version
How Vermont Was Born. ZNet version
Blaming Outiders: Matthew Lyon and the Election of 1800 CGR version

After the Revolution: The Road from Republic to State VTD

Mormons and the Presidency (with audio) VTD
The First Third Party

How Vermont Went Republican VTD

Vermonters Go to the White House VTD

Out of This World: The Chittenden Mysteries
The Age of Burke

Burlington: The Public Power Story VTD

A Progressive Censors Red Emma VTD

Boom and Bust in the Quarry Towns VTD
Class Struggle: From Socialism to the American Plan VTD

The Parkway That Never Was VTD (see Vermont Movie segment below)
The Road Not Taken (UVM talk) on Video
The Trouble with Sprawl
Progressive Republicans:The Aiken-Gibson Wing
Defeating a Demagogue: How Flanders Took on McCarthy CGR

Voting Equality and the Hoff Effect VTD
Waving the Flag in a Culture War
The First Earth Day
Making Peace with the Planet
Vermont's Decentralists: Questioning Authority...
Almost President: The Impossible Dream of Howard Dean
Burlington and Bernie: The Beginning
Birth of the NPAs
Another Realignment: How Progressives Lost City Hall
The Winding Road to Fusion

Local Control, Shorter Terms and Vermont’s Citizen Legislature VTD

Dark Shadows in Vermont's Past

The Parkway That Never Was
From The Vermont Movie, directed by Nora Jacobson

This 5:53 film segment streams on this site and allows scrolling with audio

An illustrated print edition is being developed, with new insights about influential Vermonters like revolutionary leaders Matthew Lyon and Ethan Allen, Anti-Mason Governor William Palmer and feminist Clarina Nichols; railroad and marble tycoons, anti-slavery activists, major strikes and labor protests; Vermont-born Presidents Chester Arthur and Calvin Coolidge and progressive politicians James Burke and Ernest Gibson; intimate portraits of Governors Phil Hoff, Tom Salmon, Richard Snelling, and Madeleine Kunin, as well as Bernie Sanders, James Jeffords, and Howard Dean. Plus, the Vermonter who rescued America from McCarthy. Excerpts from Greg Guma's Dangerous Words and Maverick Chronicles are also available:

Coming to Vermont

Bennington Holds a Culture War

Living with Polarities

Bennington Breakdown

The Years of Living Bureaucratically

The Mayor and the Connector

Alternative Voices

In a Time of Democratic Distemper

Teachers and a School Without Walls
Threats to Civil Liberties: The FBI-Census Case
Burlington at the Tipping Point
Searching for Peace in the Cold War
Nicaragua and the Road to Contragate
Restless Times & Nagging Questions
&

Signs of Change (2011)

Democrats Rising, Progressives in Eclipse (2012)

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Video: Vermont Pastoral