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American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America Paperback – September 25, 2012

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Colin Woodard (Author)
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Colin Woodard (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars 675 customer reviews
#1 Best Sellerin Local U.S. Politics
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 25, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0143122029
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143122029
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (675 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Remarkable Book
By EngrMan on November 22, 2011
Format: Hardcover
This is a remarkable book, synthesizing many earlier efforts to explain the distinct differences among different regions of the US - and Canada and part of Mexico too.

Some reviewers have stated that there is not much new here compared to Joel Garreau's 1980s book postulating 9 nations. I disagree - to me the historical thread tracing the origins of these differences are what makes it so compelling. Woodward's romp through that history is worth the price of the book. And there are startlingly different accounts of many of the historical events that are not covered in high school text books, that's for sure.

As a Canadian, it is interesting to see a treatment of history that, for Canadians, does not stop at the US border; and for Americans, does not stop a the Canadian (or Mexican) border.

I do agree with reviewers that Woodward's comments at the end of the book add too much personal opinion that diminishes the historical objectivity he shows elsewhere.

In summary, this is a compelling explanation of the enormous regional differences that make up the cultural and political landscape of America - and explains a lot about those same differences in Canada too. I strongly recommend this book to both those interested in North American History and those interested in its cultural and political trends.
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5.0 out of 5 starsLike scales falling from my eyes
By meanders on May 3, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Colin Woodard has written the story of North America that should be taught in school in place of the simplified, sanitized, nearly fictional versions created, like all national histories, for the purpose of welding disparate peoples into a single nation by convincing them they all share a common history. I just got it back from loaning to a friend and re-read it. Like other reviewers here I had read Joel Garreau's "Nine Nations" in the 1980s and more recently Kevin Phillips' "The Cousins Wars" and Dante Chinni's "Patchwork Nation". They were full of interesting information, but Nine Nations and Patchwork Nation didn't address the origins or persistence of the notable regional differences among North Americans. I think Woodard's main thesis is that these regional cultures left their marks so deeply that we are no longer consciously aware of them, and should be. My experience living and working in several of these "nations" indicates that the regional differences do persist, though national media and advertising have masked them.

Reading "American Nations" I felt the pieces falling into place. I am undecided on the question of just how valid the thesis of eleven rival nations is as political science, but it makes for a fine explication of our history. And as cultural anthropology it provides the same level of explanatory power for understanding our cultural differences that the theory of evolution provided for understanding biology, or that the theory of plate tectonics did for understanding planetary-scale geologic processes.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsunfied field theory of American history
By C. P. Anderson on November 22, 2011
Format: Kindle Edition
If you like your history big, all-encompassing, different, quirky, and bound to make you think, you'll love this one.

It's basically a follow-up to David Hackett Fisher's Albion's Seed. That book, which came out in 1989, posited 4 basic cultures that settled the US, and which continued to have a huge influence up to this day.

To those cultures (Puritan New England, Quaker Pennsylvania, Cavalier Tidewater, and Scots-Irish Appalachia), Woodard has added a few more (New Netherlands and the Deep South, for example), and extended coverage of them up to the current day. He does an excellent job showing how different the nations were at the time of the Revolution, and why uniting the country was as difficult as it was. He also shows how the different cultures extended across the landscape (for example, a Yankee influence in the Western Reserve of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as well as a similar influence on the "Left Coast"). He does a good job showing how immigration fits in as well (basically, the original cultures were so strong that immigrants went where they fit in). Finally, he shows how the current impasse between red and blue states can all be tied back to a basic cultural division between Yankeedom and the Deep South. It really does help explain "what's the matter with Kansas?"
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5.0 out of 5 starsSlicing America Differently
By George F. Simons on August 10, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Given that North Americans by and large have been quite a migratory lot, is it possible that the author could label what we would normally and vaguely identify as "regional differences" as "nations" with powerful and distinct identities? Colin Woodard, historian and journalist would have us believe that even today the North American continent embraces eleven of these, which he describes as "rival regional cultures" that beg serious attention, if we are to understand and deal with North American politics, economics, and above all social values. Woodard would have us believe that "one nation indivisible" is a myth created and sustained to cover our incompatibilities and deter our further fragmentation.

Though I did not identify it as such at the time, my migration from Ohio to be educated in a Maryland highschool and later to take up a Fellowship to earn my doctorate in California in the mid-1970s involved substantial amounts of what we describe today as culture shock. Caught in the midst of what Woodard in retrospect calls "culture wars" I was mostly just humored by the bumper stickers worn on cars from the Pacific Northwest that read, "Don't Californicate Oregon," and "Water in Oregon is pasteurized: it flows through pasture after pasture,"--the aim was to deter the surge of unbridled urban expansion and development into pristine, "wide-open spaces."

Perhaps the key distinction here is that, according to the author, nations are what have culture; states try to create them. He reminds us that the dynamic of artificial boundaries, "bringing states into existence" are a result of colonization or political gerrymandering, and not necessarily coherent or coterminous with the cultures of the people enclosed by them.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsThis is the best American history book

I have degree in history and read it regularly. This is the best American history book!

Published 1 day ago by randy lanari
1.0 out of 5 starsI would not recommend this book to anyone

Mr. Woodard's political views are too apparent for an objective evaluation of his conclusions drawn in the second half of this book. Read more

Published 7 days ago by Dan
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent book if you want to understand the on going differences within the United States.

Published 8 days ago by Timothy M. Bowe
5.0 out of 5 starsMine eyes have seen the glory

Originally from a Midland area with a substantial Appalachian infusion, instead of writing a book review you might think I'd be (a) shrugging disinterestedly, or (b) pummeling... Read more

Published 9 days ago by D.B. Wiseguy
4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting explanation of the origins of regional differences, but...

Interesting explanation of the origins of regional differences, but I found it difficult to follow. I had to frequently turn back to former references especially the maps at the... Read more

Published 12 days ago by Gerald Sachs
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

This is s great explanation of where the regional strife in America may have originated and why it continues.

Published 12 days ago by Cat quilting lady
5.0 out of 5 starsFantastic, another interpretation of the development of USA

Fantastic,another interpretation of the development of USA. Excellent, highly recommend.

Published 14 days ago by Luis F Maggiolo
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Thank you

Published 14 days ago by Angela M.
4.0 out of 5 starsIt was a good history book and made you think about different areas...

It was a good history book and made you think about different areas of the USA. Not sure you can put a label on any state these days, as all are up for grabs and your personal... Read more

Published 15 days ago by B. Thomas
5.0 out of 5 starsI have recommended this book to many of my friends

I have recommended this book to many of my friends. It is a readable overview of the cultures that have settled in different parts of America, and by the time one gets to 100 pages... Read more

Published 25 days ago by James E. Townsend

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