American Nations

Not an absolutely terrible book, but reading it just a year after reading Albion's Seed exposes the weakness of Woodward's in comparison. The former is much more rigorous and thorough in it's approach, while the latter's only advantage is the wider breadth of nations covered. The author also eschews any effort to hide his ‘Northern Alliance' bias and uses the last third of the book to rant about Southerners, of which much of it is comically naive in hindsight. I'm sure this book was a hit with the Jon Stewart Daily Show-era libs that would have read it at the time.

Really insightful book tracing the history of the American ‘nations' as defined by the author (New England, New Netherlands, Tidewater, Midlands, Appalachia, Deep South, New France, El Norte, First Nation, alongside the younger Far West and Left Coast). The book does a good job describing each group's history from its origins to today, not dwelling too much on any historical episode, but rather discussing the evolution of each nation and their interplay.

I felt that this book was particularly illuminating while discussing how each nation within each ‘bloc' (e.g., Dixie) responded to different circumstances based on their distinctive characteristics (e.g., although Appalachia nowadays mostly sides with the Deep South / Tidewater, it mostly fought on the Union side in the Civil War). The book also is very strong at conveying how different and truly separate each nation was / is, and hence, how fragile the Union truly is in the historical view. The epilogue written after Covid paints a grim picture for the future by mentioning another multi-national union that ultimately was not able to keep its nations together (Yugoslavia).

A lot of fascinating insights into our cultural heritage. I've recommended this book to at least five other people already. This definitely explains a lot of the cultural divide and political debates still going on today.

This book covers American history from the 1500s up through 2010. I learned there were multiple parts to the American Revolution, and additional wars that were being fought in the US territories.

History is context, and context is king. Colin Woodard's piece is the history book you wish you had read in high school. Chronicling the colonization (including Spanish, Dutch, British, and French) and subsequent migrations within North America, Woodard illuminates how current political boundaries aren't as meaningful as the various regional cultural identities aka “nations”. (Ever wonder why Ohio is a swing state? 3 regional cultures lie within its bounds.)

As someone who was never really compelled by the textbook version of history taught in high school, Woodard's ethnographic lens brought the continent to life in a whole new way. In this current election year, it subsequently helped me better understand nations and people whom I've been unable to empathize with.