MIDDLEBURY — A lot has changed since 18th-century writer Thomas Paine penned his famous “Common Sense,” a 47-page pamphlet that galvanized Americans in 1776 by arguing for the Thirteen Colonies’ independence from Great Britain.

However, at least one thing has remained the same since its publication over 200 years ago — pamphlets are still being used to push for social change.

A recent collaboration between the New Perennials project at Middlebury College and the Middlebury College Special Collections highlights the rich history of pamphlets and their continued relevance as a communication tool.

The collaborators this past Friday hosted “Radical Pamphlets Past and Present,” an event featuring historical pamphlets in the special collections archives and a new series of five pamphlets published by New Perennials Publishing, as well as presentations from a handful of pamphlet experts.

“When we decided to launch the short-form pamphlet series it made sense for us to dig down a little bit and see what that (pamphlet tradition) history looked like,” Bill Vitek, who directs the New Perennials Project, said of the collaboration. “We decided we would ask special collections if they would be willing to open their archive a little bit and pull out some of their gems and we would bring some scholars in.”

The pamphlet series is one of several publications and productions of the New Perennials Project, which explores the idea of using perennial plants as a model for how to live, such as by exploring and sharing the role and influence of perennial agriculture and education.

“We explore these ideas in a way that we hope will make individual lives in communities and classrooms more equitable, more diverse, and full of opportunity for the right kind of growth — deep roots, in place,” Vitek said at the Nov. 1 event.

To further its mission, the New Perennials Project team teaches a course at Middlebury College, works with community partners and distributes informational material through its publishing platform.

“We have this publishing mission in our project to work on developing a narrative around perennial thinking and action,” Vitek explained. “The pamphlet idea grew out of ‘how can we energize students and everyday people we work with to write about something they care about and share it with the community they live in.’ Our thought was ‘well, that’s what pamphlets did way back when.’”

New Perennials previously published a couple of pamphlets and returned to the idea around nine months ago. The latest series of pamphlets features work from Middlebury College students and some New Perennials community partners, including Willowell Foundation Founder and its Director Matt Schlein and Courageous Stage Director Lindsay Pontius, who also serves as the Education Director at Town Hall Theater.

The short-form pamphlets are all around 1,000-1,500 words. They were edited by local freelance editor Regan Eberhart, the layout was done by an in-house designer, and student interns created the cover art for each pamphlet.

One of the five pamphlets was written by Middlebury College senior Kylie King, whose “Slowing Down is a Radical Act” explores how short and long-form content impact the way we think and our potential to address environmental concerns.

“It felt a bit hard to be writing about slowing down while I was in the middle of doing finals for three other classes,” King said of the writing process. “Luckily I got the chance this summer to intern with New Perennials and actually slow down and fully write out the thoughts I had regarding that topic.”

King was one of a handful of people to speak at the Nov. 1 event, which featured pamphlet writers and experts. Attendees also heard from Brian Donahue, professor emeritus American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University.

Donahue wrote the first pamphlet published by New Perennials Publishing, titled “Go Farm, Young People, and Help Heal the Country.” The pamphlet argues for empowering rural people so they can “replace the current extractive economy with an attractive economy, and for repopulating the countryside with intrepid young people to help drive change,” according to the New Perennials website.

The event’s other speakers were Brent Ranalli, an environmental policy professional and independent scholar who spoke about Thomas Paine’s lesser-known pamphlet “Agrarian Justice,” and Ron Mordechai Makleff.

PUNCHY & UNAPOLOGETIC

Makleff is a lecturer at Middlebury College and will teach a winter J-term course on the radical pamphlet tradition. At the event, he spoke with attendees about the history of that tradition.

“There’s so many pamphlets out there it’s really hard to draw one narrative about what they are, but when I was looking at it, it seemed to me that it’s both a genre and a form,” he said. “It’s almost always a protest, whether it’s for or against something. It’s political, it’s punchy, it’s unapologetic.”

Attendees got the chance to browse a one-night-only exhibit curated by the college’s special collections that showcased some of the historical pamphlets in its archives.

Also on display were the five pamphlets recently published by New Perennials Publishing. Vitek said the hope is to continue adding pamphlets to the series, with a handful of students and community partners expected to complete pamphlets in the coming months.

“We’re trying to tell students, ‘Don’t think that you’re writing a paper just for a teacher to get a grade and move on,’ these pamphlets potentially have a much broader audience, and the same with our community partners,” Vitek said. “We said to them, ‘If you have the time, write about what you do, and we’ll publish it as a pamphlet and do our best to get it out to a broader audience.’”

The New Perennials team plans to have the pamphlet series published digitally on its website (newperennials.org) in the coming weeks and is also hoping to distribute the pamphlets to physical locations around Addison County, such as in local coffee shops and bookstores.

“We really think of these pamphlets as local and regional people writing about local and regional impacts to strengthen local and regional communities,” Vitek said.

The pamphlet series is in part aimed at helping residents connect more with their community right here.

“What we’re trying to do in this project is to help refocus our attention more regionally and locally in the communities we live in, more of it than the kinds of things that keep us glued to Instagram and all the other feeds we get,” Vitek said. “It grabs our attention, and we forget that we have neighbors right next door, and we have the living environment all around us, but so often we think about global this or global that.”

“(The pamphlet project) really is about caring,” he continued. “It’s about helping people feel better about where they live, how they live, with whom they live and helping them to slow down.”

The team’s focus on the radical pamphlet tradition fits into the broader work of the New Perennials Project, which often explores the idea of roots and how perennial plants put down roots that tether them to a place. Vitek noted that in the original meaning of the word “radical” is “at the root.”

“A radical idea gets at the root of some issue,” he explained. “So, we want people to get radical right where they are, which for us is to get rooted and to care about what your neighbors think and say. Hopefully they will care and listen to what you say. It’s about building that community spirit that creates resilience, political action at that level. That’s the overall goal of this project.”