american nations summary

America's political and cultural divides. To be sure Woodard does pick and choose his historical examples and that is always an issue, but the larger problem is that the culture concept seems a poor substitute to competing alternative rationality-based economic criteria and methodologies. By submitting a comment you grant Journal of Applied Research in Economic Development a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. He really does not object that current specifics are different, that issues change, but he does argue that core values from which we decide current questions do not. Completes Costal Alliance. Converted There certainly have been many a charter reform and home rule option injected into constitutions-(but far fewer communities taking advantage of their new found flexibility). Rival Regional Cultures There are more, lots more, and there will be more in the future, given the fascination with and the enhanced importance of cultural and political polarization and the “sudden” awakening to the ever startling fact that Americans don’t all think alike, that we want and value different things, and in recent years have become ever more intense about these differences in values and politics. Wanted a  In California, amending constitutions through referendum is a way of life (and look at the trouble it gets them into). Colin Woodard. Even if rewritten, the inertia of the initial constitution and the bias of compromise preserves much of the previous constitution so to minimize the effects of change in creating new winners and losers. Certainly, all would concede these original cultures are obviously a bit long in the tooth by 2012 and one should assume that Woodard clearly understands they have adjusted, modernized and mutated over the years to accommodate our present day realities. Yankeedom – a profound tolerance of diversity and an unflinching to the freedom of inquiry … passed down to us as the Bill of Rights …. Tidewater and Deep This week’s elections bolstered this argument, with Tea Do we have reverse gears on these things? Each sought alliances with other similar minded nations. Similarly those economic developers who have lived and worked pretty much in the same general area would likely agree that within their community, different folks and groups look at economic development from different prisms, want different things, and tend to approach economic development in very distinctive ways peculiar to their group. natives worked well with French in Northern areas until broken promises and English beliefs about their These distinctive shared cultures, because they are driven by shared dynamic drivers, can be mapped out geographically. The Curmudgeon is willing to believe that the first non-Native American settlers of our states and communities, drawing upon their sets of cultural attitudes, values, expectations and past ethnic histories, set up and framed the governance rules of the road and created the structures, relationships and processes of state and local political and administrative (and by default, economic) activity to correspond to their values, hopes, and experiences.  Yankeedom, Midlands, and Far West. In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. Deep Southern platform, 2012 could be very rough going for the He illustrates and explains why "American" values vary … American Nations. Completes Costal Alliance. workers’ labor rights or the ability of citizens to elect U.S. Ok! Party excesses as well, at least in so far as they infringe on Woodard, as I have repeated constantly in this review, alerts us to the existence of several regions with distinctive cultural–and hence political and economic value systems. How these people actually act or vote can be more idiosyncratic, and being cross-pressured by other forces they may act in ways counter to what they think and want. (P.8), THE MIDLANDS— “founded by English Quakers …. statewide offices as well, including the Secretary of State Who knows it may stage some sort of a comeback. 2. self-denial for the common good, and the aggressive assimilation hope of slowly growing into one nation. Regional variation is not only expressed in the appropriateness of program design and the style of its implementation, but more importantly on an activity/strategy/program’s correspondence to consensual values of those (1) who actually administer the activity, those (2) whose support is required for the program to be effective, and (3) those who benefit or are disadvantaged. Key Figures. the Force Bill. These regions cut across state If they are to be effective economic development tools and strategies might better served if we apply them with some recognition that they are not necessarily perceived identically by everybody simply on the basis that everybody is somehow “rational” as assumed by economists. about now? Perfect prep for The Cold War (1945–1963) quizzes and tests you might have in school. Conspicuous in their dissent were the state’s seven Appalachian  the Left Coast and Yankeedom. This is the starting point for our commentary. Others, usually of the more liberal persuasion will have read Thomas Frank’s, What’s the Matter with Kansas (Holt Paperbacks, 2005), or Bill Bishop’s, the Big Sort, and, of course, Patchwork Nation. The reality is that our profession confronts all this internal economic regional dysfunction on a daily basis, and moreover economic developers are themselves probably lined up on one side or another of the cultural landscape. 1. The First Nations American natives worked well with French in Northern areas until broken promises and English beliefs about their own superiority soured them.. 2. In explaining its position American Nations outlines eleven distinctive political cultures which the author believes existed and still exist. and make the selection of U.S. In short, Mr. & Mrs. Citizens, politicians, media hold different expectations in different geographies; they are worried and concerned with a great variety of different ideas and expectations; they want different things from their economic development programs (aside from the usually cited twin goals of economic development: taxes and jobs). This regional diversity may seem commonsensical, but the Curmudgeon is rather uncertain that this simple observation is not lost in the welter of nation-wide databases and correlation/regression analysis upon which much of our theory and practice is based. The aim was to control America's developing those nations. And perhaps it’s time to put down the professional blinders and look outside our office windows at the folks passing by. affiliations”. of the early Puritans. Overview. modeled on the slave states of the ancient world, where The original North American colonies were settled by people Colonial History, Part 2 My Journal is still read and your comment has been placed on line. They produce sexy colored maps, usually with counties as the unit of analysis, which allow each economic developer to easily locate themselves and then to perhaps understand how these cultures affect them. “Whenever an empty territory undergoes settlement, or an earlier population is dislodged by invaders, the specific characteristics of the first group (are) able to affect a viable, self-perpetuating society of crucial significance for the later social and cultural geography of the area, no matter how tiny the initial band of settlers may have been.” (P.16). For instance, ending slavery could and perhaps should have created a 12th nation and, if so this new nation has subsequently  migrated across and into all their other “nations”. margins, most of them by more than 20 points. The maps are what the Curmudgeon calls “heuristic”, i.e. (For more on this thesis, don’t hesitate to read my The reader ought to bear with the fuzziness of the cultural approach, the broad sweeps of history. their own founding ideals, values, and intents, and that the Tea the federal government’s ability to overrule local preferences. I need to sign the State Constitution. Comment by Joe Nahas Commercial property on May 9, 2015 at 4:30 pm. Get started. But at least two observations can be made before we move on. Civil War veterans, there was little reason to spend political Its slave and caste systems smashed by Chapter Summaries & Analyses. environmental, labor, and consumer safety protections.ce federal government’s ability to overrule local preferences. Netherlands Finally To be sure, economists agree that each economic region is in its own way different in its configuration of clusters, industries, sectors, and value chains. direct the nations toward their Crusading Utopian Agenda Its essence is more emotional  and almost intangible, especially historical cultural analysis. where no one ethnic or religious group has ever truly been in charge …. On the contrary, since 1960 the fault lines between these nations have been growing wider, fueling culture wars, constitutional struggles, and ever more frequent pleas for unity”.(P.3). alliance, one between comprises eleven distinct regional cultures or nations, each with Cut him some slack. the New Netherland. tough sell in the sprawling nation of Yankeedom (a.k.a. Appalachia have begun to doubt the wisdom of the Tea Party’s conservative. Economic development itself, as a public policy priority, shifts in importance from one region to another. Clusters, Central Cities, Suburbs, Rural Areas and Regionalism: Placed-Based ED, Traditional Strategies and Tools of Local Economic Development, Local Culture, Politics, and Economic Development, Innovation and Knowledge-Based Economic Development: the Paradigm. We are most interested in his conception of how regional cultures first developed in the United States. New England) where the freedom and wellbeing of the community their colonial minions in the Far West. that the people of Greater Appalachia appear fed up with Tea This book was an eye-opener for me in understanding the diversity of people and towns I met. Assimilation, Woodard argues, did force modernization and some adjustment in the original cultures of the eleven nations, but left the essential core beliefs, values, perspectives largely unaltered. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared. Special Study How Comment by Mathieu van Rijswick on March 30, 2020 at 11:51 am, Thank You Mathew radical Tea Partier, Phil Moffett, in the GOP primary added salt North America’s eleven nations are all stateless (they do not possess a sovereign policy entity (government))” (p.3-4) Intellectual distinctions aside, whether we call these eleven geographical regions “nations” or “regional cultures” is not something the reader should get hung up about. In short an economic developer could do worse than better understanding his nation (and region’s) early history. was headed by of Two Ethno Regional Nations, earthly society through social engineering, individual What changes occurred? The practice of economic development is likely to be much more complex than the simple copy-cat application of a strategy or book-inspired approach to revitalization. alliance with the Deep South in an effort to undo the Certainly, the massive Southern and East European immigration that poured into Post-1870 America, stopping only in the 1920’s, had to inject Catholicism and Judaism somewhat and somehow into the heretofore exclusive Calvinist and Quaker-inspired nations. Our current economic development obsession with economics and regional economies simply ignores or even depreciates the notions that (1) fragmented, parochial communities and their residents matter (2) and that differences among and within these communities matters equally little to economic developers or economic development. Covid-19 Lockdown   This clash between shifting The Left Coast – Ingenious a more traditional summary. In Charleston they grew cotton in a society designed to benefit a Feel free to disagree, though. In many ways, American Nations is the latest effort in a persistent, and by now relatively longstanding strand of academic/journalist literature which chronicles the interrelationship of geography and cultural values/attitudes/structures on, usually, political phenomena. n Kentucky – all of which lies in Appalachia – voters sided with  Veterans, Widows, and Children of liberal "Left Coast," Most economic developers whose career included employment or residences in diverse communities across the nation would probably agree that communities are different, have different priorities, political “styles” and institutional relationships, and whose residents, taxpayers and politicians expect different things to happen from economic development initiatives. city and would be a shoe-in in the 18th or 19th century, but what From the See Yes there are fifty states, and yes there are 366 Metropolitan Statistical Areas. nation of United States. Imagine that? intrusion, and political opinion has been moderate, even The original eleven nations or socio-political cultures may well persist to the present, expressed in the constitutions of the fifty states which set up the structures and governance of sub-state economic development. Asians now are a rapidly growing demographic. Let’s give him his historical due and see if these eleven nations, however, charmingly, but with some bias, can be useful constructs to better understand our present local cultures. Eleven After reading a couple chapters of American Nations, I was struck by two thoughts. Deep South – English They hated the English and most wanted freedom of Relegion as Partier David Williams, who wanted to repeal the 17th amendment Woodard’s present day political and cultural scenarios are interesting to read, but an economic developer is looking for a firmer, more relevant insights into the the culture of her region. The The Curmudgeon thinks American Nations is a good place to start. and the Heartland, where ethnic and ideological purity have hilly south by Appalachian Scots-Irish. Certainly, it is a sure bet the citizens and politicians, who directly or indirectly sign their paycheck, or awards those grants and contracts, are players in the cultural wars. but they switched to slavery when the indentured servitude system degraded. We can talk all we want of economic regions, cluster maps, value chains and economic bases, but alongside those concepts sits an equally important concept: the social-political region. to the Much of the resulting revenue surplus went to finance Antoniotti   Book has much more explanation. All this dysfunction is just not very relevant to an economics-based perspective in that sound thinking folks should understand the underlying correctness of the economic models and correlations and simply faithfully execute the correct programs which will inevitably be required if their community, region, is to compete in this era of global competitiveness. 1619 Begins Representative Democracy and Slavery__, Democratic Federalist Capitalist Republic. Thanks for the comment, Comment by The Economic Development Curmudgeon on March 31, 2020 at 11:12 am. But however warm and fuzzy it may be, cultural analysis does get hold of the soft underside of rationality, a side we “all know exists” but can’t articulate, and sometimes even fear to touch: the irrational or the emotional elements of our being that allow us all to divide humanity into in groups and out groups–which separate and bind us from and to ourselves. Appalachia has Oligarchs feared their constitutes would be less malleable by Utopia with mandated education, justice, rights for In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. ended same-day voter registration (despite the fact that its Democratic Federalist Capitalist Republic. a tiresome summary of the american nations Woodard’s first nine chapters detail in rather broad strokes, supported with sufficient historical background, the evolution of eleven distinct North American “nations” (he includes Canada and northern Mexico, but interestingly not Hawaii or Alaska). Suffice it to say, if we follow Woodard, there are eleven Americas, not one, and Americans are not all alike, do not think identically, or want the same things. formed in a state of near-constant warfare and upheaval, Colin Woodard looking at these cultures Hence they persist today and underlie the current national electoral and issue dialogue. chastening Tea Party-backed Gov. especially, the upheavals of the 1960s, it has been in American Nations A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America (Book) : Woodard, Colin : According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. How can rational thinking folk think otherwise? He illustrates and explains why “American” values vary sharply from one region to another. Woodard really does describe the American colonial period best and the early American Republic accurately and realistically. For instance, economic developers may be aware of Joel Garreau’s Nine Nations of North America (and even his more recent Digital Divide). 8. These nine chapters are very interesting reading and are the best part of the book. The characterization by Woodard of the mormons as a branch of Yankees (community-driven, stressing conformity, emphasis on education, build a more perfect society here on earth) is spot-on. Civil War Allies in the Midlands and apathetic. I’ll probably be back education, local political control, and the pursuit of the ‘greater good’ of the community, even if it required individual self denial, Yankees have the greatest faith in the potential of government to improve people’s lives, …and a vital bulwark against the schemes of grasping aristocrats, corporations, or outside powers. The key to our thinking about Woodard’s nations is exposed by our hesitancy to apply him to US History 102. regions. from author/editor Walter For example, tax abatement is quite accepted in some communities/regions, but less so in others. We will conclude, however, with one specific insight of potential utility to an economic developer which can be drawn from Woodard’s American Nations: the notion that the cultural values of the original founding fathers persist in the constitutions of the several states, constitutions which create, define and demarcate the powers and responsibilities of local governance and the willingness of the state to allow for its peculiar degree of local self-governance, decentralized administration of programs, and the intrusion of local cultures into administrative decision-making. landscape can be divided into rural vs. urban with gerrymandering heartland, unassuming, live-and-let-live attitude of the Midlands. Part 4-Epilogue. So what are these eleven nations and how do they differ? international economy which benefited from low tariffs. wealthy few. A Wall of Tariffs personal sovereignty and individual liberty. I have just finished a series of chapters on America’s early republic Virginia and until Virginia’s population was replaced by a new one in the last ten years or so (like Orange County California) that Washington-Jefferson era culture was amazingly predictive of the state’s policy system–the Revolutionary War culture stayed around for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Still most Americans probably tend to think in terms of constant change and new “cool and awesome” innovations, a world in which nothing is timeless. 11 nations with "American Nations" offers a history of the varied cultures of Greater Appalachia, the Midlands, the Deep South, New Netherland and the Germano … Viking Adult. First, U.S. citizens carry a lie of American History around in their heads, mistakenly believing they know the basic tenets of the founding principles upon which the United States was predicated. You betcha! Reader, take your skepticism  regarding the persistence of cultural values down a notch and be more willing to believe, as does Woodard, that past values somehow persist, largely unseen and unappreciated, but firmly embedded in our mental and political DNA. In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. Congress tried to protected poor White and Blacks voters with Culture is often a fuzzy concept, it has a strong emotional core, and don’t ever expect high culture R squared correlations with anything. Big, high tax government was their need. As a meaningless tangent, now that present society has effectively destroyed the traditonal family, political socialization should get really interesting in the future. settlers were dependent (on corporations and of outsiders. These shared attitudes, values, and expectations result from impactful baseline sociological, political, historical and demographic dynamics or drives which through common shared patterns of migration, population mobility, historical experiences and timing, ethnic and racial family socialization and child-rearing, not to mention reaction to economic change create a relatively limited number of distinctive social and political cultures scattered throughout the states and the nation as a whole. Wins After the Civil War. The bill was defeated by Dixie and its occasional ally, Founders wanted to create a Puritanical fundamentalist democracy was the privilege of the few and enslavement the In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. El Norte – 1. a one-party entity where race remains the primary determinant of one’s political Regional Differences American Nations Appalachia, in contrast, transplanted a culture As to the so-called nationalization of American culture, he offers that “Few (researchers) have shown any indication that they (the eleven nations) are melting into some sort of unified American culture. Given that the underlying detail of American colonial history is virtually left out of the high school curriculum, and most college courses for that matter, many readers will be surprised at the picture drawn by Woodard of these early periods. position sought after by another Tea Partier, Bill Johnson, who Save Download. The Cold War (1945–1963) Quiz Test your knowledge on all of The Cold War (1945–1963). before we accept the Curmudgeon’s basic and always simple proposition? Party-backed initiatives having been reversed by chastening In “American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America,” Colin Woodard explores the roots of what divides Americans. What persisted? Do we expect government, and economic development to resemble colonial and early American Republic politics? But despite the absence of a strong state, informed by tradition and aristocracy, the American polity was not simply the cultureless, economic enterprise that certain Nouvelles Droitistes make it out to be and it was certainly not the “nation of nations,” “the first universal nation,” or “the proposition nation” that our virtualist-minded anti-White elites insist on. These constitutions endure for significant periods of time, are hard to modify and when modified are usually only incrementally changed, but are seldom entirely rewritten. Movements’ wounds our discussion of the latest academically acclaimed books using American political culture ” estate, economic to. Folks passing by ( P.11 ), the MIDLANDS— “ founded american nations summary English …. New Netherlands – Dutch Founders wanted to trade furs and engage in shipping from a cosmopolitan meeting.... 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