No. of Recommendations: 3
It's a good start on beginning to understand the various cultures in America, how they historically developed and , and how they currently influence. If you've traveled the US, such as I have, it will help illuminate some areas, acquaint you with areas you wondered about, and you will undoubtedly disagree on some. It's great resentment fostering material for MAGAts - so if you're primed to resent back East, you'll hate this book.
When I read it I was searching to understand why we were so divided. It partially helps explain it. I was born in Indiana, and was surprised early in my years to find we were a bastion of the KKK. In fact for a period the Grand Wizard of the KKK was in Indiana, KKK memebership went downhill after he was convicted for chewing a woman to death. I had to realize the KKK was sooo prevalent it was highly likely that some of my relatives were in the KKK. There were cross burnings in my hoe town. Now I never heard any of them say a bigoted thing, but the odds are favorable.
Here's a top review:
February 27, 2017
Growing up in the South I always wondered why my family was so different from those around us. We were friendly with the people in our community but when serious discussions came up my parents grew quiet. Our friends and neighbors had no such reservations. They were opinionated and always eager for a fight of any kind whether with fists or words. We lived side and by side and spoke the same language but I always got the sense that we were just not ‘one of them.’
My family was never really gung-ho when it came to discussions about the Confederacy or flying the flag. They were proud of being southern but it seemed to stop there. They were Republicans back in the days when everyone else was a Democrat. We just did not ‘fit’.
Doing family history I learned that my mother’s people were New England Quakers who gradually made their way into the south. My father’s people lived in the North Carolina Highlands where they intermarried with the Cherokee. This was all very interesting but I honestly thought it was all ancient history until I read this book American Nations.
A light suddenly came on in my head. My mother’s people came out of Yankeedom! My father’s people were those Borderlanders who lived in Appalachia and remained loyal to the Union because they hated the southern planters of the Tidewater and the ‘fake’ aristocracy they believed they wished to bring to America.
If this sounds like some kind of secret code rest assured it is not. Colin Woodard has outlined a theory as to why America is so divided along cultural and political lines. It all goes back to the very beginnings of this country where politics and culture were determined by who settled where and what their dreams were.
All of the different groups brought positives and negatives with them when they decided to settle here. Some wished to recreate the old world in a new setting, such as the younger sons of the British aristocracy who settled in the Tidewater and the Deep South. Some, like the Puritans and Pilgrims of New England, wanted a brand new utopia, a city on the hill in Yankeedom. The German settlers of the Midlands wanted nothing more than to farm and raise their families in a place free of restrictions and restraint. In New Amsterdam, the Dutch opted for a multi-cultural commerce center that became New York City. The Scots-Irish came here because they could. They were the tough ones, not afraid of a good fight who settled the wilderness and formed a civilization without a government in Appalachia.
Even today living in this area which was settled by all of these groups you can see faint reminders of these earlier cultures all around us. Is it too fantastical to think that sitting down with a varied group of residents we could find out just by listening to the tone of their conversation who their ancestors were? I believe it is possible.
The book answered so many questions. Why was integration so much harder to implement in the Deep South? Why are the states of the Pacific Northwest in the ‘blue’ category? Why did the Scots-Irish not side with the rest of the south until AFTER the Civil War?
The negatives of each group are also highlighted. Yankeedom brought the concept of the town hall meeting and democracy but they were also religiously intolerant. New Netherlands gave us slavery which was taken advantage of in the Tidewater and Deep South. The Scots-Irish were the Marines of their day. They were the first to fight and never backed down from a challenge. Unfortunately, this tenacity could also translate into just plain old hard headiness which caused many a roadblock politically and socially.
The role of religion in each ‘nation’ is discussed in detail. He includes similar developments in Canada which are valuable information for serious students of this school of thought. He gives several chapters to the earlier Spanish explorations, the French settling of the Gulf Coast and to later immigrant arrivals. Who settled where and why in the American West is given equal time which was information I used to just skim over.
I would, however, caution the reader that Woodard can seem to come across in the later chapters as caustic toward certain regions and certain ideals. If you are of Scots-Irish descent you might want to take him to task for this and I fully expect you will but otherwise, it is an interesting and fascinating read for all of those out there wondering ‘Why are we the way we are and how did we come to this? Will we ever truly be a ‘United’ nation?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11140803-ameri...
