Posted on 08/02/2015 11:51:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In his fourth book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America," award-winning author Colin Woodard identifies 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US.
"The country has been arguing about a lot of fundamental things lately including state roles and individual liberty," Woodard, a Maine native who won the 2012 George Polk Award for investigative reporting, told Business Insider.
"[But] in order to have any productive conversation on these issues," he added, "you need to know where you come from. Once you know where you are coming from it will help move the conversation forward."
Here's how Woodard describes each nation:
Yankeedom
Encompassing the entire Northeast north of New York City and spreading through Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, Yankeedom values education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment, and citizen participation in government as a shield against tyranny. Yankees are comfortable with government regulation. Woodard notes that Yankees have a "Utopian streak." The area was settled by radical Calvinists....
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Why was there never a Burbon Rebellion?
How about "1776?"
Wasn't that the original idea?
Because Kentucky wasn’t yet settled?
Because Bourbon *is* a whisky?
I promise I could fix it. You wouldn’t like the methodology, but it would be fixed. It would all become one nation.
Many years ago, Parade magazine did an excellent feature on the spread of regional dialects in the US, focusing heavily on “Southern Highland” [hillbilly, basically] and that map has it down, precisely.
Follow the dialect, you follow the culture.
I can understand Texans perfectly but New Englanders and coastal southerners give me problems.
Arkansas is not as unique as you think.
There is a good book on Ozark myth and folklore [another hallmark of ‘culture’] and everything in that book is identical to the folklore of where I live.
The map is valid, with the exception that they should have run “Greater Appalachia” farther north into western PA.
You probably should not come here on vacation.
:)
Sorry...vacation? There? WHY???? ;)
Because it tastes like cough syrup.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
:D
Looks like I’ve always lived in the “Midlands” - PA and South Jersey. Based on the little bit of traveling I did, the map does seem spot on.
Yup.
I used to fly a “Betsy Ross” flag and battle flag on the house.
Nobody got my “joke”.
I am a Greater Appalachin living in El Norte. Who knew?
I agree. Almost everyone that objectively views that map will instantly note exceptions to his “rules” (much less be mortally offended either by his inclusions or oversights).
I’ve seen this map and subsequent descriptions before, and they are just as much stupid, east coast elite nonsense now as they were the first time.
To suggest that New York and DC merit their own micro-cultural regions, while then lumping (just as one example) Kansas City and Toronto into one broad region is utter nonsense. The bigger point this illustrates is that we ar all products of our own experiences, and our perceptions of the world reflect that.
I’m a rural Northwest Indiana kid. Ask me to slice the US into eleven regions and I could probably create a somewhat defensible thesis on how northwest Indiana to South Bend, greater Chicago and Milwaukee, and southwest Michigan to Lansing are a distinct micro-region called “Michee Goumee”. At the same time I would see no problem in lumping Philly, NYC, Boston, and Baltimore into one big area called “east coast hell”. Does that make me right? No, it just means I know a great deal about my home area and want to further a narrative.
The map is valid, with the exception that they should have run “Greater Appalachia” farther north into western PA
This old fart hears ya.
Yep, and it lasted until 1861. It had a shorter run than most people realize.
Thank you
:)
Because it is The One True God’s Country.
:)
Indeed it did.
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