General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhich of the 11 American nations do you live in?
Red states and blue states? Flyover country and the coasts? How simplistic. Colin Woodard, a reporter at the Portland Press Herald and author of several books, says North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states, where dominant cultures explain our voting behaviors and attitudes toward everything from social issues to the role of government.
The borders of my eleven American nations are reflected in many different types of maps including maps showing the distribution of linguistic dialects, the spread of cultural artifacts, the prevalence of different religious denominations, and the county-by-county breakdown of voting in virtually every hotly contested presidential race in our history, Woodard writes in the Fall 2013 issue of Tufts Universitys alumni magazine. Our continents famed mobility has been reinforcing, not dissolving, regional differences, as people increasingly sort themselves into like-minded communities.
Take a look at his map:
Woodard lays out his map in the new book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America. Heres how he breaks down the continent:
Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest tend to be more comfortable with government regulation. They value education and the common good more than other regions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of-the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in/
valerief
(53,235 posts)brer cat
(24,401 posts)"the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish settlers value individual liberty. Residents are 'intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers.'"
The natives where I live have historically been intensely suspicious of any outsiders.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)"Intensely suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social engineers. " Yep, that's us.
d_r
(6,907 posts)Or OK no nm Kansas ark Ill Ind west ky or middle tenn. East Tenn is more different from Penn's or south Ohio than west Florida south al and ms are from Nola. Orlando and Tampa ain't deep south.and the wrap around great lakes states. Not as simplistic as this map.
MiniMe
(21,676 posts)Can't tell in that map which. I live in Maryland, just NW of Washington, DC.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)Is no longer part of the US & Tampa is the deep south? This ass needs to lay of the acid
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)& you feel the need to insult me. Be gone now....
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)Nay
(12,051 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)AwakeAtLast
(14,112 posts)JEB
(4,748 posts)GP6971
(31,013 posts)paleotn
(17,778 posts)The Southern Appalachians, pronounced Appa-LATCH-uh thank you very damn much, have little in common culturally with TX, OK, MO most of TN and the rest. Our ancestry is a distinct sub culture of Scots and Scots Irish immigrants and we should be an island to ourselves encompassing only the Appalachian Mtns south of South Mountain and the valley / ridge and Cumberland Plateau provinces of TN and KY. However, I'm not too sure about Knoxville and Chattanooga as they seem to be a bit odd. The rest of TN can have them. I suppose that proves the authors description of us and we are intensely suspicious of outsiders, particularly those with Floriduh plates (get out!), but it applies far, far less to the rest of that oversimplified, red region.
Move that Tidewater line to Greenville, NC and East. Central NC has far more in common with TN and KY than coastal VA. Coastal SC (Charleston, Georgetown etc) has been Tidewater since the freaking 17th century! FL is "deep south" down to Lake Okeechobee? Hell, I thought you had to go north of Gainesville before grits and sweet tea became common on the menu.
Who drew up this map anyway? A damn New Yorker?
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)This area actually extends as far north along the Hudson as Albany, NY.
There are still Dutch influences here. The architecture, the multi-cultural atmosphere are alive and well here, and people are moving up from NYC all the time.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I live in CT.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)I guess I'm from the Deep South-New France border, but there's a lot of bleed. New Orleans is well known as the westernmost part of the Caribbean too. And Seattle is as left as it gets. Oddly, I love both. It's not as hard as it seems. France is pretty liberal in a whole lot of ways.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)The area around Tampa Bay. Not quite Deep South, not quite Spanish Caribbean.
Stephen Retired
(190 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)I think my eyes are bleeding!
Stephen Retired
(190 posts)Kind of like the Devil, except that's he's less dangerous than Sarah.
Brigid
(17,621 posts)She's wearing a rosary. A rosary is not a necklace, Sarah.
sarge43
(28,939 posts)Born in Michigan, live in New Hampshire. Not comfortable with all government regulations, but the ones that benefit the common good, ayeup. Education: The most important tool for keeping the bs detector calibrated.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)I've always found it deeply amusing that the rugged individualists of the Far West are "intensely libertarian and deeply distrustful of big institutions, whether they are railroads and monopolies or the federal government" when those same big institutions made it possible to live there.
Without welfare ranching, welfare mining, welfare farming, welfare railroads, etc. etc. etc., much of the interior West (and Alaska!) would never have been developed.
bobclark86
(1,415 posts)If you think Northern Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York were "founded by Puritans," "tend to be more comfortable with government regulation," and "value education and the common good more than other regions," I have a bridge to sell you that spans both the Allegheny River and Susquehanna.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)This was an interesting read. Thanks very much!
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)How about the Okies?
Iggo
(47,486 posts)And if you think that's Mexico, you got a different problem.
The_Commonist
(2,518 posts)I've been thinking in these terms for 30 years now, ever since I read this book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_America
markmyword
(180 posts)I'm so fed up with all the crazies living in the South and far West.
This would be great, so us folks in the North can move forward with the times. If the South wants to pray all day, and run their lives according to the Bible, then let them, but not on my dime!
The_Commonist
(2,518 posts)I'm not sure what that means...
Anansi1171
(793 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)to Northern Ontario.
That's gerrymandering worse than a Texas congressional district.
Sid
H2O Man
(73,308 posts)An accurate map would include it.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)the far west, at the foot of the wrong side of the mountain/border from the left coast.
Response to Katashi_itto (Original post)
Corruption Inc This message was self-deleted by its author.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)I clicked to the larger map with counties. I am two blocks from Yankeedom.
I consider myself in YAnkeedom, and my neighborhood would qualify.
brooklynite
(93,834 posts)The rest of the Country is just a figment of your imagination.