Say you were a candidate for political office in Maine and by mid-September you still hadn’t done your homework about the economic, social and environmental conditions here. Before this year, you would have been forced to panic, allow yourself to be shocked and dismayed by whatever your opponent says, even if it is about the weather, and announce grandly that taxes must be lowered somehow! This year is different because this year Richard Barringer, a professor at the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine, has done the homework for you.

In “Changing Maine 1960-2010,” Dr. Barringer has assembled the ideas of 23 of Maine’s better thinkers on subjects such as what its demographics mean, how it uses the land, where its education systems are going, who has been running the state and why arts and culture matter more than ever. As the book’s title suggests, the essays, originally presented over the last year as talks at the Muskie School, look back a generation and forward the next several years to give readers a sense of where Maine stands now. It is not only an unusually useful book; it is well written and edited, a thoughtful and entertaining exploration of Maine.

To mention just two related ideas, Charles Colgan, a professor of public policy at the Muskie School, introduces a new way of looking at Maine’s economy: “The ‘Two Maines’ – generally north and south – has been widely used to describe the Maine economy for more than twenty years; but the other two Maines – urban and rural – has received little attention. This is too bad, because the changes in the industrial base of Maine also marks – and masks -the change to an urban economy.”

This theme of Maine becoming a lot like everywhere else is picked up in a chapter by Evan Richert, former director of the State Planning Office. “[I]n 1960, fewer than one in ten Maine municipalities statewide had hit the threshold of residential density that signaled its end as a rural community – that is, community organized primarily for production, including forestry, farming, wildlife, water supplies, and a host of natural functions upon which we all depend. Based on the recent 2000 Census, one in five municipalities statewide now has hit, or by 2010 will hit, that threshold.” In southern and midcoast Maine, half of the municipalities “are now organized primarily for consumption rather than production.”

Penobscot Chief Barry Dana gives his perspective on the meaning of the 1980 settlement act. Forestry consultant Lloyd Irland outlines the complicated changes affecting the woods industry. Professor Kenneth Palmer of UMaine explains the growth and growing professionalism of Maine government. Lisa Pohlmann from the Maine Center for Economic Policy looks at poverty in Maine. Christian Potholm of Bowdoin College traces the recent history of Maine politics.

One broad conclusion from a half-dozen of the essays: In its work, incomes, suburban growth, the way it uses energy and elsewhere, Maine is losing its distinctiveness. This loss is neither wholly undesirable nor inevitable, but absent an awareness of the changes described “Changing Maine,” it may occur in ways residents of Maine would never consciously choose. In that sense, the book is not only for aspiring politicians but also for anyone concerned with the state’s future to 2010 and beyond.