June 13, 2018
By Les Conklin
American Nations: A History of the Rival Regional Cultures of North America
I seem to remember being with my kindergarten classmates in 1943, staring at the American flag posted in the front of the classroom and earnestly reciting the pledge of allegiance.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.” *See note at end of article.
One Nation
The history classes that I took during elementary school and high school taught the history of our nation, the United States, in chronological order, with emphasis on the major periods and events. Most American history books are organized in the same way. Colin Woodward’s book, “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America” uses a different and more revealing approach. It’s an approach that helps the reader better understand our country’s history and cultural turbulence.
Woodward writes that North America was settled over-time by people with differing religious, political and ethnic characteristics. The result was the creation of 11 distinct regional cultures or “nations.” Immigrants that came later were confronted by, powerfully influenced by, and became part of, one of these regional cultures. The history of North America has been shaped by the interplay, rivalries and alliances between these “component” nations. The interactions between them will also be a major forces in the future.
11 American Cultural Regions
The American Nations Today. Courtesy Colin Woodward and Tufts University.
A picture is truly worth a thousand words. The map shown here is from an article that Woodard wrote in the Fall 2013 issue of Tufts University’s alumni magazine.
Later in 2013, Reid Wilson of the Washington Post wrote an article entitled “Which of the 11 American Nations do you live in?” In his article, Wilson included Woodward’s map, shown here, and summarized the 11 nationals described by Woodward in his book.
“Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.
“New Netherland: The Netherlands was the most sophisticated society in the Western world when New York was founded, Woodard writes, so it’s no wonder that the region has been a hub of global commerce. It’s also the region most accepting of historically persecuted populations.
“The Midlands: Stretching from Quaker territory west through Iowa and into more populated areas of the Midwest, the Midlands are “pluralistic and organized around the middle class.” Government intrusion is unwelcome, and ethnic and ideological purity isn’t a priority.
“Tidewater: The coastal regions in the English colonies of Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware tend to respect authority and value tradition. Once the most powerful American nation, it began to decline during Westward expansion.
“Greater Appalachia: Extending from West Virginia through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Northwest Texas, the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish settlers value individual liberty. Residents are “intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers.”
“Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste system established by masters who tried to duplicate West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old South values states’ rights and local control and fights the expansion of federal powers.
“El Norte: Southwest Texas and the border region is the oldest, and most linguistically different, nation in the Americas. Hard work and self-sufficiency are prized values.
“The Left Coast: A hybrid, Woodard says, of Appalachian independence and Yankee utopianism loosely defined by the Pacific Ocean on one side and coastal mountain ranges like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas on the other. The independence and innovation required of early explorers continues to manifest in places like Silicon Valley and the tech companies around Seattle.
“The Far West: The Great Plains and the Mountain West were built by industry, made necessary by harsh, sometimes inhospitable climates. Far Westerners are intensely libertarian and deeply distrustful of big institutions, whether they are railroads and monopolies or the federal government.
“New France: Former French colonies in and around New Orleans and Quebec tend toward consensus and egalitarian, “among the most liberal on the continent, with unusually tolerant attitudes toward gays and people of all races and a ready acceptance of government involvement in the economy,” Woodard writes.
“First Nation: The few First Nation peoples left — Native Americans who never gave up their land to white settlers — are mainly in the harshly Arctic north of Canada and Alaska. They have sovereignty over their lands, but their population is only around 300,000.”
An Excellent Read
When I last checked, the book had 949 Amazon reviews. Reviewers have given it a rating of 4.5 stars out of five. I read the digital edition of the book on my Kindle Fire. and my Kindle reader. I completely agree with the impressive rating.
The first part of the book, which I enjoyed the most, describes the establishment and development of each of the 11 cultural areas listed above. The second part gives examples of how these nations have interacted during different periods and social issues, e.g. slavery, the Great Depression, World War II, civil rights, gun control, gay rights, etc. Nothing lasts forever. Can our nation endure in its current form? Based on our cultural history what might follow? These are subjects discussed in the third part of the book. The book’s epilogue caught me totally by surprise. An interesting surprise that I will not ruin for you.
My only regret about his book is that I was not able to read it decades ago. It provides an excellent foundation for understanding our nation’s history. Like many people, as a result of travel I’ve witnessed how much the different parts of our counry differ, Those past travels would have been enriched had I read this book before hitting the road.
Note About Pledge of Allegiance
I began this review by quoting the pledge of allegiance. The pledge I quoted above is the version that I recited in kindergardten. The pledge has changed since then. Here is a brief article from Wikipedia about the history of the pledge.
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June 16, 2018
Well done.
June 17, 2018
I hope this is not overkill but here is a five star review by Brad VanAukenon from Amazon that is to the point. “This book should be required reading for all Americans. It would make a great textbook for high school American history. The book goes well beyond the pilgrim and Thanksgiving myths that create a unified and hugely simplified view of our country’s founding. It describes the different groups that came to America for entirely different reasons and speaks to their varying attitudes and values. The book lends considerable insight to the regional and political differences that persist today. I read dozens of new books a year. This one stood out among all of the others. It was an absolutely fascinating read.”