Book Review-- American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, Colin Woodard (2011)

This is an important book offering a different take on American history.  According to this author, the founding of the US isn't about one group of guys in the same union and three cornered hats.  The US, instead, is a loose federation composed of not one or two but 11 "nations" which he describes as "ethnoregional cultures."  Those different cultures have all been in place since the mid 1800's and continue to the present day, notwithstanding the waves of immigration since.

I would belong either to (1) El Norte or (2) the Left Coast but my forebears were (1) Appalachian Scots-Irish Borderlanders (2) German/ Swedish Midlanders (Midwesterners) and possibly (3) Irish Catholic Yankees, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

It's important because it explains why people from the Southern part of the US seem to come from a different country because, in a way, they do.  We in Los Angeles have more in common with people just south of the border than US citizens from South Carolina.

His theory, however, has limits.  There are other factors that divide Americans.  It's not all about region and history.  There is the divide between big city v. small town/ country, and the divide between rich and poor.  However, the author has hit an important concept and his book should be read to counteract the fake version of American history put forth by cynical politicians.