Tyler Alexander is a history teacher, a 2007 graduate of the College of Education and Social Services’ Master of Arts in Teaching program, and - now - a published author.

When he let us know about the 2025 publication of “If I Can Get Home this Fall,” a deeply researched work based on letters Tyler found at the Vermont Historical Society, we knew we wanted to know more.

We had that chance over email in spring 2026 and are delighted to share what we learned.

University of Vermont Foundation:

We are so grateful to you for having kept us aware of the publication and for making sure the UVM community knows about your work. Thank you!

The book has attracted a wonderful amount of attention here in Vermont, and has even been nominated for a 2026 Vermont Book Award. We wonder if there is anything you’d add that you think the UVM community would be especially interested to learn?

Tyler Alexander:

I earned a Master of Arts in Teaching at UVM in 2007. I had studied history (and forestry) as an undergraduate at the University of Maine and by my senior year I realized I wanted to teach, so I decided that the MAT program at UVM would be ideal for me. Luckily, I received a federal fellowship through the James Madison Fellowship Foundation that paid for my master’s program. The goal of the program is to promote civics education and one of the requirements was that I had to take an additional twelve credits of coursework in American constitutionalism beyond what was required for the MAT program. Part of this occurred at a summer institute at Georgetown University.

It was a busy year for me! But my cohort was great! I met some really interesting people who I learned a lot from, two of whom are now my colleagues at Champlain Valley Union High School! Many others in my group are still teaching, twenty years later, at schools across Vermont. We all supported each other a great deal, and it was the people I met who were the best part of the program. 

UVMF:

Are there specific ways that your time at UVM played a role in your book? Any classes, friends or faculty members that come to mind? (We can’t help noting historian Kevin Graffagnino ’76’s involvement)

Tyler:

Not having taken any education courses as an undergraduate, I would have been ill-prepared to teach with only a history degree. The courses that I took were illuminating and eye-opening. I learned a lot about the history of public education, was exposed to the writings of John Dewey for the first time, remember well Jen Prue's enthusiasm in teaching adolescent psychology, gained a better appreciation of the role that public education-especially civics education-plays in a democratic society, and developed a better understanding of how good pedagogy can help nurture democratic norms and values. My student teaching experience at Mt. Abraham was invaluable in giving me an opportunity to apply, in a hands-on way, the concepts that I was learning about. The values that I learned through my time at UVM certainly have imbued my work ever since, both in teaching and in writing about history. 

I've always had a particular fascination with the Civil War, which was the deadliest, most polarizing event in our history. Its legacy affects us everywhere. I remember all the parallels that were drawn between Obama and Lincoln after the 2008 election. The shooting in Charleston, SC in 2015, the events in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and all the current arguments about "woke-ism," DEI, the end of Affirmative Action, and so much else cause us to constantly confront the question of what the Civil War means.

It is such a privilege to be able to talk about these issues with my students. How lucky am I that this is my job! It's not always easy, but if I can help young people develop a better understanding of who we are as Americans, then I feel like I've done something productive.

My book essentially grew out of that same desire--to share a story that I think fundamentally addresses the question of what America means. That story turned out to be one of a young man and young woman from Glover, Vermont in the 1860's that I found irresistible and couldn't help but get absorbed by. 

UVMF:

We always love to ask: what advice would you offer to current students and alumni considering a path like yours, whether writing or researching history or teaching?

Tyler:

I never knew when I graduated how fraught the teaching of history would become. When I graduated twenty years ago, I think I (and probably most of us) took democracy itself for granted. Everything now feels so politicized and at times it's disheartening and even scary to be a teacher. Will teaching the truth get me in trouble? How can I be "neutral" when it comes to moral questions that transcend political ones? If we can't even agree on a common set of facts about any number of issues, where do I even begin? These questions definitely can keep me up at night. 

I think we must be willing, as teachers, historians, students, and citizens, to, as Teddy Roosevelt said, get "in the arena" and not be afraid to defend the timeless, quintessentially American principles that have defined us in our best moments.

Do we believe in the self-evident truth that "all men are created equal?" If so, we have to be willing to stay engaged in our communities and do something to address all of the problems associated with ever-deepening polarization. 

One concrete policy that I would be in favor of would be a civics education requirement for all students in Vermont. There's been some talk of this, but there is no such requirement in Vermont. I think that would go a long way in terms of helping students develop a common political language, understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens, know what democracy is and is not, and feel empowered to take action to make their communities stronger and more resilient. Plus, what better place than public schools to facilitate conversations between individuals from such diverse backgrounds? Are there any similar opportunities that exist elsewhere? 

 UVMF:

Your work and research feel so timely. Can we ask: what is important for us, in Vermont in 2026, to learn from the art and letters of the Civil War? You’ve given some great examples, but I wonder if there are other ways that you see the issues of the late 19^th century alive here today?

Tyler:

In researching my book about Vermont and Vermonters during the Civil War period, I realized how much Vermonters valued public education at the time. As the historian James McPherson noted, New England - where 95% of its citizens could read and write - led the world in literacy in the mid-19th century. Vermont also supported Abraham Lincoln more than any other state in the election of 1860; 75% of Vermonters voted for him. By contrast, Lincoln won his home state of Illinois with just 50% of the vote.

Notwithstanding the prevalence of racism, including among those with anti-slavery views, I've argued that Vermont was the most anti-slavery state in the Union. There are many reasons for this, but I believe that Vermont's anti-slavery principles were interwoven with its spirit of democratic public education. The soldier whose letters form the backbone of my book was a farmer and public-school teacher in Glover, Vermont, before he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861.

He was committed to abolitionism and eventually became an officer in a Black regiment. I was struck by how much of his eulogy (read the book for more details!) was devoted to a defense of public education (though for young men):

"Under no form of government in the world do young men exert greater influence than under our own, for soon after attaining the age when they should leave the schools so wisely provided by the public, each becomes a sharer in the government and helps to determine what the destiny of his country shall be…

We consider secondly, the characteristics which render them equal to the trust to be reposed in them. 

1st: They must be intelligent. I would not argue that everyone must pursue the full course of study required in the college or university, but every young man should receive an education to the extent afforded by our public schools, and there should be added there to the influence of reading for information as to affairs of interest in general. This is necessary in order that the Excellency of our government as compared with other forms may be appreciated, and that no more may be dazzled (as some have been) with the show and splendor of the courts of kings and emperors and thus be led to covet them.

Besides, without this, what hinders them from becoming the dupes of designing and wicked men? 

An education is necessary that they may think independently, exercise the elective franchise wisely, and may fill places of trust with honor to themselves, and with profit to the state or country..."

Wow. How prescient. As another example of this same sentiment, a sermon in Hinesburg, Vermont, that was delivered on the day that the Thirteenth Amendment  was ratified in 1865 declared that “In the states where the system of free schools was most effective, the loyalty of the people was the most staunch...The people are beginning to see that it is an economical as well as a National and moral duty, to offer a free education to all those who are to become citizens of the Republic.”

The understanding, in Vermont, in 1865, that public education, democracy, patriotism, civic virtue, and a belief in human equality were all interconnected...that's John Dewey. My time at UVM helped me to better appreciate values like these. Our support for public education is a legacy that we should be proud of as Vermonters. Of course, there are major questions right now about what the future of public education will look like in Vermont, but I don't think we can lose sight of the values that we have expected-- since statehood-- that our public schools should nurture. 

I discovered the painting that is featured on my book's cover at the University of Houston in Texas. It's a Julian Scott painting from 1871-1872 depicting the First Vermont Brigade in action at the Battle of Banks's Ford on May 4, 1863. When I learned that the University of Houston was going to auction it off to raise money for a scholarship fund, I contacted Howard Coffin and State Curator David Schutz to see if there was any way that we could facilitate its return to Vermont.

Kevin Graffagnino played an instrumental role in doing just that, and the painting was eventually purchased by Lyman Orton last spring. We unveiled it in the Cedar Creek Room at the State House last October, next to Scott's other works. The action depicted in the painting was part of the larger Chancellorsville Campaign. The Vermonters' stand at Bank's Ford on the Rappahannock River in Virginia was a bright spot in an otherwise horrible defeat for Lincoln and the Union. Robert E. Lee was so emboldened by his victory there that he launched his invasion of Pennsylvania soon thereafter. It was a very dark time for the Union and for democracy itself. Morale in the North was at a low ebb.

The South of course hoped that Northerners would lose the will to fight, lose interest in fighting a war of emancipation, and "make a deal" that would end the war. But despite staggering losses around the nation and with no end to the war in sight, Vermonters - and Northerners more broadly - didn't lose the will to fight for, as Lincoln said at Gettysburg later that year, the notion that the nation would have a "new birth of freedom" and that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth." I think that this sense of conviction is clearly shown in the painting, which is partly why I chose it to be featured on the cover.

We can never know enough about the incomprehensible sacrifices that ordinary men and women from that generation made to redefine the nation's democratic aspirations.

There are plenty of lessons for our own time.