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

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2011

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Introduction-Part 1

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Part 4-Epilogue

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Themes

The Melting Pot Is a Falsehood

The United States is often described as a melting pot—a country in which immigrants’ various cultures and values combine into a cohesive whole. Woodard writes that this idea is false, arguing that the US is really 11 nations within one, each with its own culture and politics. Immigrants to the US do not assimilate into the great American melting pot but instead largely acquire the characteristics of the region of the United States in which they settle.

Those characteristics are, according to Woodard, primarily determined by the nature and values of the immigrants who first settled the area. For example, the early European settlers of the Midlands were often fleeing oppressive authoritarian regimes. As a result, they tended to be skeptical of governmental power—a tendency Woodard argues has persisted in the region to this day, even among those of different ethnic backgrounds. Immigrants therefore do assimilate, but they do so by becoming part of the regional rather than national fabric.

This does not mean that there is no truth to the idea of the melting pot. In some places, such as New York, there has been more substantial cultural exchange and evolution as new immigrants have arrived. However, Woodard attributes this to the original character of “New Netherland,” which was multicultural from the start. Paradoxically, then, immigrants to the region assimilate precisely through the act of sharing their culture.

Regions that were colonized relatively late in the country’s history offer another partial exception to the rule, as their characters sometimes arose at the intersection of different “kinds” of settlers. The Left Coast, for example, resembles Yankeedom in its utopianism but Appalachia in its individualism. Nevertheless, Woodard argues that such regions have largely maintained their original traits, amalgamation or not, in the face of later waves of immigration; they are thus not a true counterexample to his overall depiction of the melting pot as a falsehood.

The Regions at Loggerheads

Woodard writes that the various regions’ philosophies and cultures are not only distinct but, in many cases, fundamentally opposed to each other. Even eras of apparent national unity can be explained by each region pursuing its own ends.

To some extent, each region has values that are incompatible with those of other regions. The Midlands’ suspicion of government, for example, conflicts with Yankeedom’s faith in government’s ability to fulfill a communal agenda. However, Woodard suggests that the most intractable conflict pits Yankeedom against the Deep South. The Puritans who settled in New England wanted to establish a “city on a hill,” or a model for the rest of the world. Yankeedom’s mission has therefore long been to reform other societies along its own lines. The Deep South, on the other hand, was founded on the idea of libertas—the concept that the freedom of the elite planter class depended on the labor of those toiling beneath them. These cultural differences persist into the present day. Yankeedom seeks to create a better society through well-run government, and its culture is essentially a middle-class one that prizes equality. The Deep South, by contrast, is committed to maintaining a caste system that perpetuates inequality. Equality and inequality cannot coexist (particularly when proponents of each want to expand their influence), so the two regions are at a permanent impasse that occasionally erupts into literal conflict—as in the Civil War.

This does not mean the various regions never work together. However, Woodard argues that events like the American Revolution should not be understood as indications that all 11 regions have signed on to a basic set of principles. Rather, Woodard argues that only Yankeedom, with its emphasis on equality and self-government, was supportive of the revolution’s stated goals. By contrast, the Deep South was afraid that the British would instigate large-scale revolts of enslaved Black Americans and acceded to the revolution to avoid this.

Over the course of US history, different regions have aligned themselves with either Yankeedom (such as New Netherland and the Left Coast) or the Deep South (such as the Tidewater and Appalachia). This might seem to suggest that compromise across cultures is possible; Appalachia, for example, does not share the Deep South’s elitism but has allied with it anyway. For Woodard, however, it is merely an indication of how totalizing the conflict between Yankeedom and the Deep South is. The blocs are so dominant, and their ideas in such great opposition, that a compromise between them, Woodard writes, is unlikely. The cultural and political differences between the regions have only increased since the civil rights movements and the student protests of the 1960s, and an end to the division is nowhere in sight.

The Resurgence of Cultural Minorities

In discussing the more recent history of North America, Woodard writes about the resurgence of several long-disenfranchised cultural groups. These groups bolster Woodard’s overall claims about the false mythology of the melting pot by serving as an extreme example of the persistence of regional culture across time: Even a group that was apparently subsumed into a greater whole may survive and reemerge as a political force decades or centuries later.

One such group is the Norteños, the residents of El Norte who came from Mexico, whether centuries ago or more recently. When Anglos moved into El Norte following the Mexican War, Norteños lost power. However, bolstered by the recent influx of Mexican immigrants, people of Mexican descent have gained power in El Norte. This region promises to hold a great deal of power in the coming years, as its people will comprise a large sector of the US population that Woodard implies is likely to ally itself with Yankeedom due to the racism of the Deep South.

Other examples of cultural resurgence come from Canada. For instance, the people of New France have gained more powers, granted to them by the Anglos who largely control Canada, and are, according to Woodard, the most liberal and most open to multiculturalism in the continent. The Indigenous peoples of Canada have likewise fought for and gained greater control over their regions, as in Nunavut, a region of Canada inhabited by Inuit people.

As Woodard regards Canada as the most stable of the three North American nation-states, the reemergence of suppressed regional differences does not necessarily lead to dissolution. It does, however, necessitate compromise, which Woodard regards as politically unlikely in the US context.