Life Became Very Blurry: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Vermont

In March 2020, the arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus prompted Vermont state officials to order a two-week lockdown to attempt to slow the spread of the illness. It was the start of a years-long response to the global COVID-19 pandemic that upended the world.

Vermont’s response to the pandemic was widely recognized, and realizing the historic significance of the outbreak, the Vermont Historical Society launched a project to document its impact. By collecting more than a hundred oral histories from state officials, doctors, and citizens, the project captured the consequences and influence the pandemic had on the Green Mountain State.

Life Became Very Blurry: An Oral History of COVID-19 In Vermont builds on that project. Edited by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, it compiles those oral histories into a comprehensive narrative of the pandemic in Vermont from the first lockdowns in March 2020 through the tumultuous years that followed. 

Paperback and eBook, March 25th, 2025.

$24.95, 244 pages.

Read an interview with Graff about the book here. 

Order a copy from the VHS bookstore and from Amazon.com. 

Available as an ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Ebooks.com, Google Books, iBooks, and Kobo.