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

“Such calls for unity overlook a glaring historical fact: Americans have been deeply divided since the days of Jamestown and Plymouth.”

Woodard maintains that calls for the United States to return to a state of unity are historically false. The United States was never a cohesive whole. Instead, from the beginning, it was divided into different cultural regions, which the author refers to as “nations.” He uses Plymouth and Jamestown as examples not only because these were the earliest English colonies in the US but also because they epitomize the main dividing line in American politics: Yankeedom versus the Tidewater (later the Deep South).

“I have very consciously used the term nations to describe these regional cultures, for by the time they agreed to share a federated state, each had long exhibited the characteristics of nationhood.”

Woodard describes the different regions of the US as nations because these regions have different cultures, ethnic origins, histories, and symbols. He makes this point explicit for readers to underscore his basic claim that The Melting Pot Is a Falsehood.

“Our continent’s famed mobility—and the transportation and communications technology that foster it—has been reinforcing, not dissolving, the differences between the nations.”

Woodard writes that the movement of Americans has not erased the distinctions between the different regions, or nations. Instead, this movement has enhanced these differences. This is because settlers brought their original cultures with them and transplanted them in new areas.