American Nations

Really insightful book tracing the history of the American ‘nations' as defined by the author (New England, New Netherlands, Tidewater, Midlands, Appalachia, Deep South, New France, El Norte, First Nation, alongside the younger Far West and Left Coast). The book does a good job describing each group's history from its origins to today, not dwelling too much on any historical episode, but rather discussing the evolution of each nation and their interplay.

I felt that this book was particularly illuminating while discussing how each nation within each ‘bloc' (e.g., Dixie) responded to different circumstances based on their distinctive characteristics (e.g., although Appalachia nowadays mostly sides with the Deep South / Tidewater, it mostly fought on the Union side in the Civil War). The book also is very strong at conveying how different and truly separate each nation was / is, and hence, how fragile the Union truly is in the historical view. The epilogue written after Covid paints a grim picture for the future by mentioning another multi-national union that ultimately was not able to keep its nations together (Yugoslavia).