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Sebastian Ritscher
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AMERICAN NATIONS

Colin Woodard

A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

An illuminating history of North America's eleven rival cultural regions that explodes the red state-blue state myth.
North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture, but rather into one of the eleven distinct regional ones that spread over the continent each staking out mutually exclusive territory.
In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. He illustrates and explains why "American" values vary sharply from one region to another. Woodard reveals how intranational differences have played a pivotal role at every point in the continent's history, from the American Revolution and the Civil War to the tumultuous sixties and the "blue county/red county" maps of recent presidential elections.

American Nations is a revolutionary and revelatory take on America's myriad identities and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and are molding our future.

Colin Woodard is a writer, historian, and award-winning journalist who has reported from more than fifty foreign countries and six continents. He is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and the Chronicle of Higher Education, and his work has appeared in the Economist, Smithsonian, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Miami Herald, Newsweek/the Daily Beast, and dozens of other publications. He is the authorof The Lobster Coast, The Republic of Pirates, and Ocean's End and lives in Portland, Maine.
Available products
Book

Published 2023-04-17 by Viking

Book

Published 2024-11-28 by Viking

Comments

Author's article about gun violence in the US - Nationhood Lab project just published its biggest data journalism project yet analyzing gun violence via American Nations Read more...

Woodard makes a worthwhile contribution by offering an accessible, well-researched analysis with appeal to both casual and scholarly readers.

Colin Woodard's AMERICAN NATIONS was selected as on of the Wall Street Journal's Books of the Year: " Those still trying to understand the results of the presidential election would be wise to pick up Colin Woodard's "American Nations." His book makes the powerful case that 11 "nations" -- as in distinctive, regional cultures -- make up North America and powerfully affect our fractured politics. "

Chinese (Simpl.): Social Sciences ; Japanese: Shoten ; Korean: Geulhangari

A smart read that feels particularly timely now, when so many would claim a mythically unified 'Founding Fathers' as their political ancestors.

The book has shot to the top of Amazon's rankings and as of today it is #46 in the History category. This is the happy result of the media picking up on it in a big way due to an essay Colin wrote that gained traction-- you can check out Colin's recent blog entry to get a sense of the fantastic wide coverage he has been receiving. Read more...

Mr. Woodard’s approach is breezier than Mr. Fischer’s and more historical than Mr. Garreau’s, but [Woodard] has earned a place on the shelf between them.

[C]ompelling and informative.

One of the most original books I read in the last year was American Nations….During my five years as an Ambassador in the United States, I spent a lot of time studying the voting patterns of different states and reading American history, and I have to say I find Woodard’s thesis to be fully borne out by my own observations

Author's article about gun violence in the US - a magazine piece in POLITICO Read more...

Woodard offers a fascinating way to parse American (writ large) politics and history in this excellent book.

Colin Woodard wrote a fascinating article about the U.S.'s response to COVID-19, tracing how it follows the regional lines he lays out in his bestselling book, American Nations. It's an intriguing read and highly recommended for anyone interested in how the United States is handling the coronavirus... Read more...