An examination of the natural, environmental, social and ultimately human history of Vermont. The author 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. Making use of accounts, advertisements, maps, landscape paintings and vintage photographs, Jan Albers delves into the stories and personalities behind the development of a succession of Vermont landscapes. Albers aims to show 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.