---
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title: "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America"
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---

# American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

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• A New Republic Best Book of the Year • The Globalist Top Books of the Year • Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction Particularly relevant in understanding who voted for who during presidential elections, this is an endlessly fascinating look at American regionalism and the eleven “nations” that continue to shape North America—by the bestselling author of Nations Apart According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard (author of American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good ) reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S. Congress or on the county-by-county election maps of any hotly contested election in our history.

Review: intriguing historical and sociological thesis might explain a lot - Pursues for this generation the same themes as "Albion's Seed" did for the last ...although with considerably different details. Where "Albion's Seed" was largely about the pre-revolutionary period, a much longer span of years including the Civil War era as well as the present day is analyzed here. A book not of new research through primary sources, but rather of synthesis of other carefully chosen works of history around a theme few even imagined and almost none expressed quite this way. Specifically, the themes here are that the several cultures within the U.S. are more different from each other than quite a few nation-states, and that although the "Borderlanders" were a majority of the population, they were egregiously excluded from political power until the time of Andrew Jackson, and are still often thought of derogatorily. He tries pretty hard -and fairly successfully- to be even-handed. Nevertheless I managed to form the impression his personal tendencies were toward progressive causes and away from the Deep South. And he does say explicitly at one point "Since 1877 the driving force of American politics hasn't primarily been a class struggle or tension between agrarian and commercial interests, or even between competing partisan ideologies, although each has played a role. Ultimately the determinative political struggle has been a clash between shifting coalitions of ethnoregional nations, one invariably headed by the Deep South, the other by Yankeedom." Among other things, this history explains why Ohio is such an important swing state in presidential elections (different land ownership resulted in _three_ different "nations" settling inside a single state ...and in dis-contiguous areas). Although he doesn't explicitly cover it at all, it seemed clear to me from reading that both a large and growing population and economic might are keys to a culture being influential. He very briefly covers the apparently uncontroversial historical maxim that the original settling (or resettling) of an area often determines its culture for hundreds of years, even after both the original people and the original economy have largely vanished. Since there are currently very few pursuing this unfamiliar line of historical inquiry, he perforce paints with quite a broad brush. As a result, some of his details feel "half-baked", and once in a while at the edges there's a whopper that has trouble standing up to a few moments deep thought. U.S. history has become mostly New England history (can you imagine relating the mythology of the U.S. without mentioning Plymouth Rock?). What happened to all the other colonies, including the older one at Jamestown? He explains how the Tidewater culture centered on Virginia was very large and enormously influential through the early decades of the union, but ultimately was hemmed in by geography and ecology and shrank to not a whole lot more than an appendage to the Deep South. He explains how the original Georgia colony was overwhelmed by the economy of the Deep South (which was founded by immigrants from Barbados rather than from Europe) and disappeared into it. And he very briefly explains that the Florida explorations and colonies were originally tied to the Spanish empire and so largely lost to the U.S. He makes a convincing case that the odds were heavily stacked _against_ the very dissimilar "New England", "New Netherland", "Tidewater", and "Deep South" colonies allying to fight for independence and federate under the constitution; splintering of the union was a very real threat for much of the next century. He shows how the settling of the coastal areas of the west coast by immigrants who came by ship (many from New England) produced a culture quite different from the more interior areas of those same states that were settled by different immigrants who came overland. Genesis of "The Left Coast" cultural nation is one of the sketchiest parts of his book, and as one who lived in California for quite a while, I found it maddeningly oversimplified. Still, he's put forward a seemingly reasonable novel point of view that brings order to a lot of loose ends. He opines that although the cultures in the U.S. had to fit reasonably well into their local ecologies, most of them were not really determined by it. (I sometimes felt he actually underplayed some obvious ecological constraints.) The one glaring exception to U.S. cultures not being determined by ecology is the "Far West", whose dryness and vastness completely stymied all the cultures that attempted to expand into it. It ultimately was settled only by following the lead of large corporatist frameworks that could organize thousands of people and support them with pinpoint application of large amounts of capital, and is still dependent on the largesse of the federal government. He's young (not long out of grad school) and he makes his living writing books and articles, rather than as an academic historian, so he has a very fresh approach to everything. For example he explains that in the backcountry folks used "whiskey" as currency (coins were almost completely absent); the tax that prompted the "Whiskey Rebellion" was essentially a blow by the coastal elites against backcountry currency! He explicitly covers every bit of background, not assuming anything at all, so readers never feel like "something's missing". He unabashedly take firm sides on current controveries, for example stating the Civil War was clearly about slavery rather than states' rights. And he's not constrained by either the "conventional wisdom" or the need to publish only defensible interpretations. Without any qualification he refers to the "Far West" as an "internal colony". Often where an academician would remain silent in the face of ambiguous or conflicting primary sources, he'll say frankly what he reads "between the lines". For example he plainly states that the scheme of Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, and others after the revolution to redeem federal debt certificates at full face value really was an outrageous and corrupt scheme, with much in common with the financial meltdown of 2008. He even opines (with some supporting evidence) that the "Founding Fathers" were slanted toward carefully circumscribed democracy and economic exploitation by elites. The emphasis here is on empirical description of the U.S., not on theory or polemics. There's almost nothing allowing comparison to other countries. So we're left with the vague notion the countries of North America are "atypical", but without any specifics or quantification or context. His speculations about possible future trends for the North American countries are restricted to a few pages in the last chapter and the Epilogue. Several things he says implicitly lead to the conclusion that the U.S. would have been better off if the South had been allowed to leave the Union quietly without a Civil War. On the other hand he explicitly states -using Canada as his example- that even without the South, encompassing several very different cultures would still be problematic, and the Union might ultimately shrink back in power and authority to little more than a federation of semi-independent states like the original confederation of 1781.
Review: Eye opening read. I learned much from this one - Over the years there have been several books and studies available putting forth the concept that American; actually all of North America, is actually a number of different nations which are more or less united. The number of these nations differs, depending upon a given author’s research. Some of these works have been good, others bad and others down right ugly. The book being reviewed here, American Nations, in my opinion is probably the best of the lot and for me makes the most sense. Now that does not mean that I agree absolutely with every thing the author has to say. That would be a sad and silly mistake. But that being said, Woodard does present some very logical reasons why we are the way we are and loads the reader with wonderful historical facts that most certainly not taught in your average high school history course. Mingled with his premise of there actually being eleven nations currently present is a dire warning of which we should all take heed. It also, in my mind, answers many questions as to why we are such a culturally and politically divided nation at this present time. Now I am not a cultural anthropologist nor have I made a dedicated study of the subject. I have though lived in each and every area addressed in this book for extended periods of time and have family members living in these areas as I write this. Folks, for the most part the author are pretty well spot on as to his comments and observations. I myself my not have worded some of these observations the author has documented quite has harshly, but there is never the less great truth in what he writes...for the most part. Now I am neither a ‘conservative’ nor am I a ‘liberal.’ Like most people I am pretty much a mixture; depending upon the subject but I simply admit it. Historical facts and events that you can observe first hand yourself over seven or more decades simply do not lie. Of course as I said in the beginning, each individual should read and study this subject using other sources...just to be sure they have as large an overview as possible. This book is very well researched and like other reviewers here, I must admit that more or less woke me up to many factors present today that I have more or less ignored. It also reinforced my amazement that we actually managed to become a more or less unified country. History, culture and religion, along with geography were most certainly against us as well as Canada and Mexico. This is one of those books that we all should read and contemplate. Weather the author is right or wrong is rather moot in many ways. The strength of this book is that it gives the reader food for thought and may open windows to the mind that the reader never realized existed. This is one of those books that I would love to see offered to each H.S. Senor to be read before graduation. I read this on the Kindle version. I would love to have had provided a set of progressive maps and the author presented his historical story...it would have been a great help. I was constantly digging through a large U.S. map I have on hand here attempting to track the author’s progress. Now as to the various theories and observations the author has made – I will leave the pontifications to others here who are much more qualified than I am to spout their vast reservoir of knowledge...bless their hearts. Don Blankenship The Ozarks

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #69,339 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) #4 in United States Local Government #6 in Cultural & Ethnic Studies Social Science eBooks #6 in State & Local Government |

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ intriguing historical and sociological thesis might explain a lot
*by C***S on September 28, 2012*

Pursues for this generation the same themes as "Albion's Seed" did for the last ...although with considerably different details. Where "Albion's Seed" was largely about the pre-revolutionary period, a much longer span of years including the Civil War era as well as the present day is analyzed here. A book not of new research through primary sources, but rather of synthesis of other carefully chosen works of history around a theme few even imagined and almost none expressed quite this way. Specifically, the themes here are that the several cultures within the U.S. are more different from each other than quite a few nation-states, and that although the "Borderlanders" were a majority of the population, they were egregiously excluded from political power until the time of Andrew Jackson, and are still often thought of derogatorily. He tries pretty hard -and fairly successfully- to be even-handed. Nevertheless I managed to form the impression his personal tendencies were toward progressive causes and away from the Deep South. And he does say explicitly at one point "Since 1877 the driving force of American politics hasn't primarily been a class struggle or tension between agrarian and commercial interests, or even between competing partisan ideologies, although each has played a role. Ultimately the determinative political struggle has been a clash between shifting coalitions of ethnoregional nations, one invariably headed by the Deep South, the other by Yankeedom." Among other things, this history explains why Ohio is such an important swing state in presidential elections (different land ownership resulted in _three_ different "nations" settling inside a single state ...and in dis-contiguous areas). Although he doesn't explicitly cover it at all, it seemed clear to me from reading that both a large and growing population and economic might are keys to a culture being influential. He very briefly covers the apparently uncontroversial historical maxim that the original settling (or resettling) of an area often determines its culture for hundreds of years, even after both the original people and the original economy have largely vanished. Since there are currently very few pursuing this unfamiliar line of historical inquiry, he perforce paints with quite a broad brush. As a result, some of his details feel "half-baked", and once in a while at the edges there's a whopper that has trouble standing up to a few moments deep thought. U.S. history has become mostly New England history (can you imagine relating the mythology of the U.S. without mentioning Plymouth Rock?). What happened to all the other colonies, including the older one at Jamestown? He explains how the Tidewater culture centered on Virginia was very large and enormously influential through the early decades of the union, but ultimately was hemmed in by geography and ecology and shrank to not a whole lot more than an appendage to the Deep South. He explains how the original Georgia colony was overwhelmed by the economy of the Deep South (which was founded by immigrants from Barbados rather than from Europe) and disappeared into it. And he very briefly explains that the Florida explorations and colonies were originally tied to the Spanish empire and so largely lost to the U.S. He makes a convincing case that the odds were heavily stacked _against_ the very dissimilar "New England", "New Netherland", "Tidewater", and "Deep South" colonies allying to fight for independence and federate under the constitution; splintering of the union was a very real threat for much of the next century. He shows how the settling of the coastal areas of the west coast by immigrants who came by ship (many from New England) produced a culture quite different from the more interior areas of those same states that were settled by different immigrants who came overland. Genesis of "The Left Coast" cultural nation is one of the sketchiest parts of his book, and as one who lived in California for quite a while, I found it maddeningly oversimplified. Still, he's put forward a seemingly reasonable novel point of view that brings order to a lot of loose ends. He opines that although the cultures in the U.S. had to fit reasonably well into their local ecologies, most of them were not really determined by it. (I sometimes felt he actually underplayed some obvious ecological constraints.) The one glaring exception to U.S. cultures not being determined by ecology is the "Far West", whose dryness and vastness completely stymied all the cultures that attempted to expand into it. It ultimately was settled only by following the lead of large corporatist frameworks that could organize thousands of people and support them with pinpoint application of large amounts of capital, and is still dependent on the largesse of the federal government. He's young (not long out of grad school) and he makes his living writing books and articles, rather than as an academic historian, so he has a very fresh approach to everything. For example he explains that in the backcountry folks used "whiskey" as currency (coins were almost completely absent); the tax that prompted the "Whiskey Rebellion" was essentially a blow by the coastal elites against backcountry currency! He explicitly covers every bit of background, not assuming anything at all, so readers never feel like "something's missing". He unabashedly take firm sides on current controveries, for example stating the Civil War was clearly about slavery rather than states' rights. And he's not constrained by either the "conventional wisdom" or the need to publish only defensible interpretations. Without any qualification he refers to the "Far West" as an "internal colony". Often where an academician would remain silent in the face of ambiguous or conflicting primary sources, he'll say frankly what he reads "between the lines". For example he plainly states that the scheme of Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton, and others after the revolution to redeem federal debt certificates at full face value really was an outrageous and corrupt scheme, with much in common with the financial meltdown of 2008. He even opines (with some supporting evidence) that the "Founding Fathers" were slanted toward carefully circumscribed democracy and economic exploitation by elites. The emphasis here is on empirical description of the U.S., not on theory or polemics. There's almost nothing allowing comparison to other countries. So we're left with the vague notion the countries of North America are "atypical", but without any specifics or quantification or context. His speculations about possible future trends for the North American countries are restricted to a few pages in the last chapter and the Epilogue. Several things he says implicitly lead to the conclusion that the U.S. would have been better off if the South had been allowed to leave the Union quietly without a Civil War. On the other hand he explicitly states -using Canada as his example- that even without the South, encompassing several very different cultures would still be problematic, and the Union might ultimately shrink back in power and authority to little more than a federation of semi-independent states like the original confederation of 1781.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Eye opening read. I learned much from this one
*by D***P on October 7, 2015*

Over the years there have been several books and studies available putting forth the concept that American; actually all of North America, is actually a number of different nations which are more or less united. The number of these nations differs, depending upon a given author’s research. Some of these works have been good, others bad and others down right ugly. The book being reviewed here, American Nations, in my opinion is probably the best of the lot and for me makes the most sense. Now that does not mean that I agree absolutely with every thing the author has to say. That would be a sad and silly mistake. But that being said, Woodard does present some very logical reasons why we are the way we are and loads the reader with wonderful historical facts that most certainly not taught in your average high school history course. Mingled with his premise of there actually being eleven nations currently present is a dire warning of which we should all take heed. It also, in my mind, answers many questions as to why we are such a culturally and politically divided nation at this present time. Now I am not a cultural anthropologist nor have I made a dedicated study of the subject. I have though lived in each and every area addressed in this book for extended periods of time and have family members living in these areas as I write this. Folks, for the most part the author are pretty well spot on as to his comments and observations. I myself my not have worded some of these observations the author has documented quite has harshly, but there is never the less great truth in what he writes...for the most part. Now I am neither a ‘conservative’ nor am I a ‘liberal.’ Like most people I am pretty much a mixture; depending upon the subject but I simply admit it. Historical facts and events that you can observe first hand yourself over seven or more decades simply do not lie. Of course as I said in the beginning, each individual should read and study this subject using other sources...just to be sure they have as large an overview as possible. This book is very well researched and like other reviewers here, I must admit that more or less woke me up to many factors present today that I have more or less ignored. It also reinforced my amazement that we actually managed to become a more or less unified country. History, culture and religion, along with geography were most certainly against us as well as Canada and Mexico. This is one of those books that we all should read and contemplate. Weather the author is right or wrong is rather moot in many ways. The strength of this book is that it gives the reader food for thought and may open windows to the mind that the reader never realized existed. This is one of those books that I would love to see offered to each H.S. Senor to be read before graduation. I read this on the Kindle version. I would love to have had provided a set of progressive maps and the author presented his historical story...it would have been a great help. I was constantly digging through a large U.S. map I have on hand here attempting to track the author’s progress. Now as to the various theories and observations the author has made – I will leave the pontifications to others here who are much more qualified than I am to spout their vast reservoir of knowledge...bless their hearts. Don Blankenship The Ozarks

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Nice American History Lesson
*by H***R on June 9, 2018*

I discovered this book in an article from the Economist. Although the book was available through the Houston Public Library system, I decided to go ahead and buy the book since it wasn’t too expensive and since I felt I would keep it for future use (i.e. my children could read it as part of the American history class they will take eventually in middle school). The thesis of the book is that North America has 12 cultures or population types with distinct historical experiences and origins) that profoundly and persistently affects our current geopolitical climate. Some of the 12 cultures are obviously well-known – the Deep South, Tidewater, or the Yankee culture based on how different groups of Anglo-Americans colonized and populated the north American coast. The “alliance” between Deep South and Deep South was akin to an unhappy marriage in two ways focusing in building an elite society on the backs of African slaves. The Appalachian culture, based on Scot-Irish immigrants that skipped over the coastal cultures into the heartland, appeared to be the most problematic and angry one in part because they came from a “barbarian” or savage frontier world in the hinterlands of Europe. In contrast, the Midland culture, based on German immigrants dedicated to pacifism, was the most accommodating and adaptable one that spread into the northern heartland of North America; they even shot into Ontario to distinguish themselves from the “New France” culture (Quebec and Louisiana), another very accommodating North American culture. I understood the strong North and South difference, but the author gives a more detailed breakdown of what has been occurring even prior to the formation of the United States. Probably the most useful lesson from the book was that there were and still are diametrically opposing values, politics, and social priorities in our country. The political experiment as our Constitution was thrown together with concessions made and a reluctance to join together as one nation. In addition to the 5 original “Anglo-American” cultures, there were 2 offshoot cultures in the western North American area – the Left Coast (which is basically a Yankee culture in the west coast) and the Far West culture (which is the most nebulous yet influential to modern politics). The idea of the Norteno culture (“El Norte”) is an interesting concept as it is distinct from “Mexicans” from old Mexico; they overflow for hundreds of miles on both sides of the Rio Grande and on the formal political border all the way through west coast. My favorite culture was probably the New Netherlands that emerged and survived around the New York area – its cosmopolitanism and tolerance for diversity (although not embracing democracy versus authoritarianism). The first 2/3rds of the book, especially in the formation of the first Euro-American cultures (Norteno, Yankee, Tidewater, Deep South, New France, and New Netherland) was informative like a history textbook – something I would recommend middle schoolers to read. The development of the Appalachian and Midland immigrant cultures was probably the most interesting part of the book as I did not know much how they were formed after immigrating from Europe. The legacy of slavery and the civil war (1861-5) was very strong in politically dividing Yankees from the Deep South but also from the Appalachians (which remains somewhat unclear to how so since the Appalachians disliked either group). The formation of the Left Coast and Far West cultures was explained in an innovative manner that I did not think earlier in the context of earlier north American cultures; however they underplayed the influence of the Norteno culture into either culture (then again, southern California was overtaken by Nortenos leaving only northern California and the Pacific west coast to the Far Left (which was led by Yankees but populated by Appalachians). However, the last third was a disappointment and the conclusion was empty. The last third of the book contained increasingly biases from the author against the Deep South or Appalachian cultures. While I do not agree with many of the sentiments of either culture, I don’t think the author portrayed these cultures fairly (although, after the Trump election of 2016, one has to wonder). While many practices of the southern United States were indeed backwards and barbaric, his sweeping generalization turned me off. Moreover, I did not agree with the author’s idea that the 19th and 20th century immigrants were simply absorbed into one of the 12 north American cultures based on geography (his theory was that an influx of immigrants do not change the area's cultural paradigm but, over time, it's the immigrants who take on the region's mores). Also, there was no consideration for Afro-Americans, the 12% percent of the population. The author later stated in different articles that they absorbed into one of the 12 cultures, but it is not convincing especially when one think of the unique traditions like the Guhlah culture in South Carolina; Afro-American cultures had their own geographic distinctions like the Euro-American cultures. The last mentioned 12th culture in North America was the least interesting and informative one in the book - the First Nation culture, which is the indigeneous Amerindian culture – again like the Afro-Americans treated homogeneously as if it was one big tribe, whereas the reality was that the Amerindians that once populated the entire North Americas were probably the most diverse culture vis-à-vis Euro- or Afro-Americans.

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