Will I love American Nations?

Admittedly, I do not read a lot of history books. My non-fiction choices are usually related to science and nature or adventure memoirs. I'm not sure what led me to choose American Nations, but as soon as got into the book, I was immediately intrigued by Woodard's approach to thinking about how the regions of this country were settled based on religious, political, and country of origin attributes, and how the culture that grew out of these regional realities have affected our history to the present day.

I learned a lot from this book about how the persisting cultures in… show more.

It totally realigned my understanding of the regional differences and distinctives in the US today. It helps explain so much of what is going on today. This is a must-read for anyone interested in US history, politics and culture.

Some of our state lines were cultural borders. The Colony of Massachusetts was founded by and for Puritans; Maryland was created for Catholics; Pennsylvania for Quakers. That process continued after the Revolution, regardless of state (or later-to-become state) lines. Colin Woodard’s book explores the founding of such cultural regions and reveals how those not-on-the-map lines influence our differing views to this day.