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

Colin Woodard’s 2011 American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America is a work of historical nonfiction and political science that takes a look at American regionalism and the territories that Woodard identifies as shaping North America. Woodard asserts that North America comprises 11 distinct nations, each containing its own unique history, ideals, and identity, and that the conflicts between these regions have molded America’s past and continue to shape its present. 

Content Warning: The source material and study guide discuss the US’s legacy of slavery, Indigenous genocide, and white supremacy.

Summary

In Woodard’s view, the American Revolution contained six revolutions in one because each region had a different reaction and experience during the conflict. Some, such as Yankeedom, were in favor of full-fledged revolution, while the elite in the Deep South feared the revolution would unleash a widespread revolt of enslaved laborers. Only Yankeedom experienced the revolution as a fight for revolutionary ideals, while the other regions went along with some ambivalence.

After the Revolution, regional differences in culture spread west, as the Yankees claimed many of the northern areas. The Midlanders moved into the middle sections of the country, imposing a Germanic culture, and the Deep South imposed its culture, complete with slavery, on southern parts of the West, including Texas. Meanwhile, the Tidewater, facing declining fortunes, and New Netherland were kept hemmed to the coast. The West Coast became somewhat Yankee in nature because Yankees largely settled areas of northern California, Oregon, and Washington, but it also had an Appalachian streak of individualism. 

The Civil War pitted the two main regional cultures of the mid-19th century, Yankeedom and the Deep South, against each other. Woodard argues that the South might have been able to secede peacefully if the Confederate forces had not attacked the federal fort at Charleston. Most of the other regions resented Yankees and were ambivalent about war until the attack on Fort Sumter. 

In the last section, Woodard traces the development of the culture wars that have pitted the Northern Alliance, composed of Yankeedom, New Netherland, and the Left Coast against the Dixie bloc of Appalachia, the Deep South, and the Tidewater. He also traces the growth of the power of El Norte, where people of Mexican descent are forging a political and cultural comeback, and the resurgence of the First Nations people of Canada. He writes that the US is unlikely to be sustainable as a nation unless it can return to the tenets of its government, which include open debate and compromise.