Description:
How the counterculture movement changed Vermont--and America
Going Up the Country is part oral history, part nostalgia-tinged narrative, and part clear-eyed analysis of the multifaceted phenomena collectively referred to as the counterculture movement in Vermont. This is the story of how young migrants, largely from the cities and suburbs of New York and Massachusetts, turned their backs on the establishment of the 1950s and moved to the backwoods of rural Vermont, spawning a revolution in lifestyle, politics, sexuality, and business practices that would have a profound impact on both the state and the nation. The movement brought hippies, back-to-the-landers, political radicals, sexual libertines, and utopians to a previously conservative state and led us to today's farm to table way of life, environmental consciousness, and progressive politics as championed by Bernie Sanders.
Review Quotes:
"[Daley's] fascinating interviews stir up no shortage of old memories, good and bad, plus passionate defenses of differences once thought to be important . . . Daley's insightful look at Vermont before and after its fabled "hippie invasion" is a useful guide to building bridges to new neighbors not on the left or anywhere near it."--Counterpunch
"Daley argues that Vermont's counterculture--its communes, its ice cream, its drugs, its politics--has had a vast impact on the culture of the country writ large."--The Boston Globe
"That the author tells her story so well may be due to the fact that she approached it as both a participant and a seasoned journalist."--Barton Chronicle
"Anyone fleeing to Vermont to escape retrograde politics elsewhere will learn much from this book!"--Steve Early, author of Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City