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

The USA is a divided country. This has become a standard statement across all public and private communication. If you do not believe the statement is true, this book is for you. If you do believe it is true, this is absolutely the book for you.

It provides a historically based conceptual framework for our current state of affairs. It has never been more important to read this book. The thesis is this. There has never, ever been one America. North America itself is a federation of eleven regional nations. A state or country is a sovereign, political entity. A nation is a group of people with common culture, ethnic background, and language. There is no such thing as blue and red states. Indeed state borders themselves are irrelevant.

Tackling a topic like this is a huge task. It spans the origins of people fleeing religious persecution, political persecution, wars, and poverty, as well as explorers, conquerors, farmers, soldiers, merchants, and people seeking wealth and utopian living. It is the time frame spanning the 1600's, through the revolutionary war, the civil war, and all the way to the present (although the book was published five years before the Trump presidency). It encompasses religion, motivation, culture, language, ethnicity, success, failure, and population spread.

Given the vast topics and time frame, the book is a magnificent muddle. But to suggest that it does not achieve coherence would do it a great disservice. It is magnificent because the book puts the reader right into the heart of the muddle. You will learn history through the settling of these nations you could not possibly know. For example, northern Alabama at the time of the Civil War consisted of many people who were culturally Appalachian (Scots and Irish). Unlike the deep South, these people were never committed to the idea of slavery. Consequently, there were Alabama military units that actually fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War.

The problem you will have in reading this exquisitely written book is that you know so little. You will wear a hole in your head from scratching it so much. One member of the book club said it left him furious with all his history teachers. It is a New Republic best book of 2011. Read it! Now!

Laurence M. Lieberman