Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape

Rating:
Summary: A must for planning boards
Review: Although subtitled, "A History of the Vermont Landscape," "Hands On The Land" is a book that should give everyone pause to think about what is happening to the landscape surrounding them, no matter where they live. Published for the Orton Family Foundation "to help the citizens of rural America define the future, shape the growth, and preserve the heritage of their communities" author Jan Albers accomplishes her task well. Her text is interesting, highly informative, easy to read and provocative for those concerned about "where do we go from here?" The illustrations (on almost every page)share top billing with the text. "Hands On The Land" should be "must reading" for all planning board members and conservationists to help them gain new perspectives about growth and control. If I could afford it I'd give a copy to every town official on Cape Cod.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Text book
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Nice Text book
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: A sense of place
Review: 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. 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!

Rating:
Summary: Experiential Magnificence
Review: This among the very few books I have experienced which combine exceptional beauty with information of urgent importance. As this volume indicates, no other state is lovelier than Vermont. Few others have a more interesting historty. But as Lyman Orton correctly indicates in the Foreword, the reader can also "take away some lessons about what determines land use, and what economic, social, cultural, and environmental consequences land-use choices may have." The reader is then urged to become involved in her or his community's efforts "to define its future, while realizing that the future's scenarios are written by today's actions." True enough. What's at stake? Examine the wealth of photographs provided in Chapter 1 and in subsequent chapters. Such natural beauty could indeed be compromised...as it has already been in so many other areas throughout the United States.

By examining the almost 400-year history of the Vermont landscape, Chapters 2-5, Albers suggests that the values of the past can be betrayed by what is done (and not done) now. Thus can the future be pre-determined, for better or worse. To have "hands on the land" is to have the power to determine its fate. That is as true of neighborhoods in the inner-city as it is of villages in Vermont. All are communities at risk.

Almost everyone will enjoy experiencing this beautiful as well as informative book. It is "must reading" for anyone involved in decisions which concern land use, and especially those decisions which have significant economic, social, cultural, and environmental consequences.

Rating:
Summary: A Detailed Vision
Review: This beautiful and insightful history of land and land use is a pleasure to possess.

It is a tribute to the changing character of a unique place, of particular value to those interested in what is to come -- the next chapter.

I recommend owning it and using it.

Rating:
Summary: beautiful volume
Review: This is a very beautiful book. The high quality of the paper, illustrations, and binding make it an artifact of almost art book quality. The text is a tad on the dull side - the story is told better in Reflections Bullough's Pond - but all in all this is a work that I am grateful to the author for writing and to the publisher for producing.

Rating:
Summary: Glad I Read This
Review: 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.