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

Well written and persuasive. Woodard grounds his analysis of the nations' boundaries, values, choices in enough reliable data and primary sources that it's hard to argue with many of his conclusions. I was disappointed in some of the coverage of the Deep South and Tidewater though. We're given in depth pictures of the lives and values of the rank and file of the other nations, but little about these two. Woodard talks about the diffeences between Anglos and Hispanics in El Norte, both culturally and in their struggles for political power, but he's largely silent on black folks in the Deep South and Tidewater. He mentions that MLK is a Deep Southerner, but doesn't really fit King's values that seem diametrically opposed to the Deep South's into his analysis. Since Woodard uses voting data for much of his analysis it's understandable that he has less to say about a group in a region who have been denied the ability to vote for most of the region's history, but it raises some interesting questions. Are black Deep Southerners and Tidewaterites nations within nations?

A great read and certainly bits the nails head quite right on most things. That said, I can't help but wonder if the author has biases, but also of course cannot deny I might have my own. I think to a degree he ignores or at least does not explain the thoughts of state pride, a phenomenon that certainly exists and influences decision in many states, even if those thoughts and cultures are intertwined with the overall cultures mentioned in the book. Overall a book I'd recommend.