American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North… (2011)

In the 1970s there was a book called "The Nine Nations of North America" - this is a more recent version of it. Highly recommended if you want to understand the interplay of cultures and regions in American politics -- and how the American history of immigration is revealed in contemporary life. ( )

The best! telling of the story of the history of the United States. Also concise, very informative & very readable. ( )

The concept behind this book struck me the same way the theory of Continental Drift did--it's so freaking obvious we should have sen this before. It certainly makes it easier to comprehend the history of North America. ( )

American Nations, journalist Colin Woodward’s history of the rival “cultures” that comprise North America, might best be understood by aspiring writers as a cautionary tale about scope. It is one thing to write a convincing op-ed piece that makes the same arguments as Woodward’s book, but it is another thing entirely to try to document the histories of eleven cultures over six centuries in a three hundred page book. Woodward tries. He fails.

Woodward’s failure is not, as many students of history might sneer, that journalists shouldn’t write history. Woodward simply takes on too much, as is evident from the subtitle: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. That’s not what American Nations is really about, though. Woodward pays short shrift to Canada (although he does mention it, favorably, near the end of the book) and essentially ignores Mexico, with the exception of its northern states, which form the southern reaches of the culture dubbed “El Norte.” (Yes, Mexico is part of North America, even its south.) This book is not really about America the geographical entity, as in “the Americas,” but the USA.

Woodward is mainly concerned with the white cultures of the United States, which he terms Yankeedom, New Netherlands, Appalachia (or the Borderlands), the Midlands, the Tidewater, Deep South, the Far West, and the Left Coast. His history of these regions, at least through the Civil War and Reconstruction, seems sound, even if it is sparsely documented. There is something to be said for the arguments Woodward makes in the first half of the book. The Civil War, for instance, was obviously a regional conflict, but Woodward’s argument that it was also a cultural conflict between Yankeedom and the Deep South over control of the federal government sheds some light onto the hostilities and the subsequent political history of the country.

The second half of the book is less convincing. The tone is rushed. I imagine Woodward realized at this point the scope of his project and was eager to complete it. There are inconsistencies in Woodward’s arguments. If, for instance, New Netherlands (i.e., New York City) valued economic expediency even more than it did multiculturalism, why did its people consistently align themselves with Yankee policies over those of the Deep South? Yankees favored the progressive “perfection” of society, while the Southern oligarchs sought deregulation in order to enrich themselves and their brethren. One answer might be the presence of so many immigrants in NYC, but Woodward earlier dismisses immigrants as a cultural force: they were everywhere rapidly assimilated into the majority cultures in which they found themselves. (The descendants of certain immigrants might object to this statement!)

African-Americans, the minority that most shaped American history, are portrayed as victims of slavery and segregation. The cultural influence of blacks is limited, apparently, to barbecue and rock and roll. Not bad, but certainly African-Americans provided more to America than labor, foodways and music? Woodward mostly ignores the political influence of blacks, noting that they sided with Yankeedom in the wake of the Civil War. Blacks sided with the “Northern Alliance” (Yankeedom, the Midlands, New Netherlands and the Left Coast) when they regained voting rights beginning in the 1950s and ‘60s, but what about more recently? Presumably African-Americans mindlessly follow the lead of whatever culture is opposing the Deep South. Woodward, stressing the racist sentiments of the Deep South, Tidewater and the Borderlands, wholly ignores the extreme racism present throughout even the “tolerant” cultures of the North. (See James Loewen’s Sundown Towns for a horrifying description of Northern racism from the mid-nineteenth century through 2000.) It goes without saying that the indigenous peoples of the United States are wholly ignored, and Canada’s First People nearly so.

I don’t list all of these faults to pick on Woodward or to harp on how his thesis fails. I think there is something there. The first half of the book, in which Woodward discusses the histories of the cultures through the Civil War is especially strong, if one takes into account that Woodward is really limiting his attention to the white cultures that made up the United States. The second half of the book is rushed and overall less convincing. Woodward lists politicians and the cultures from which they originated, making slim connections between their platforms and their supposed cultural values. Cultures are, in the second half of the book, reduced to stereotypes. I’d certainly like to read a Southerner’s take on Woodward’s portrayal of the Deep South; I suspect it would be enlightening.

An interesting effort that falls short of its lofty goals. ( )

America, like Europe, China, India and elsewhere is a complex patchwork of cultures. Homogenizing elements like McDonalds, television and nationalistic patriotism can make it seem like a "melting pot", but that is a naive and idealistic view. Traditionally the North/South divide was the standard view of America's differences, but in the 20th century the Red State / Blue State narrative has arisen. But America is more than two teams. Colin Woodard proposes there are 11 archetypal "nations" in North America, as seen in this map. Ever since the founding of the United States, these 11 cultures fought over the ultimate prize: control of the institutions of the Federal government, namely the Congress, Military, Supreme Court and Presidency. Some of the cultures are well known: Yankees of New England, the Deep South and the French of New Orleans and Quebec. Others are more novel, such as my own home state of Maryland which is in the "Midlands"; and the "Borderlands" at the heart of America but named after the border regions of Scotland, Ireland and Wales were its people and culture originated.

This is a very revealing book. It will provide a useful lens to view politics in America, Canada and Mexico. Now that I understand the 11 distinct nations, some things start to make more sense. For example in the news today, aging rocker Ted Nugent told an National Rifle Association assembly that they should fight back against a totalitarian Government and act more like Braveheart. I didn't get mad at his seeming stupidity, like I normally would, rather I understood he is a Borderlander speaking romantically to his "nation" with images they understand - a nation very distinct from others. In the end, America could fall apart if the differences between nations become too pronounced (there is evidence this trend is worsening), but what will hold it together is a common bond of self interest and a strong federal government that is not dominated by any one nation or coalition of nations. ( )