A Historian Reads: American Nations

Since the publication of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities in 1983, academics across the disciplines have had to reexamine their understandings of the nation state. In today's world, it is natural to think in terms of "the nation" and the national narrative of history. Anderson's seminal work explained the process in which we are socialized to think in terms of the nation and why the nation is a creation of the nineteenth century. Prior to the nation, civilizations existed in terms of empires and kingdoms. The people who lived within these contexts existed as subjects rather than citizens. They have no national identity. Anderson argued that the nation is an imagined community. It allows citizens to believe themselves to be a part of a greater community despite most likely never meeting the majority of this community. In the history of the United States, historians have stuck to a nationalist translation of the country's history. However, Colin Woodard's book, American Nations, goes against this trend and introduces the idea of transnational or regional history into the narrative of the United States.

Woodard divides the national into 11 regions that each contain a different and unique history which explains the modern culture of these regions. He approached the subject by trying to understand the root of today's deep political divides and sees them as a result of these different nations and their varying heritage. These nations are: First Nation, the Left Coast, El Norte, the Far West, Deep South, New Netherlands, Greater Appalachia, Yankeedom, New France, the Midlands, and Tidewater. The book follows history chronologically while also separating chapters by the different nations. An example of a regional history and how he uses it to explain modern political divides is in California. His analysis divides California between two nations: El Norte (Southern California) and the Left Coast (Northern California). The Left Coast is made up of migrants from an eastern nation, Yankeedom, whose residents prized social cooperation, a strong central government, and elitist value. They brought their values and opinions to the little inhabited northern California and successfully established a replica of Yankeedom. However, this created tension between the Protestant Anglo migrants to California and the Catholic Hispanic Californianos who inhabited southern California. These Californianos, who lived in El Norte, were mostly ranchers who prized independence, cultural pride, and quick adaptation. When California was annexed into the United States, the two poles of the states retained their personalities and as time went by would become two very different regions and voting blocks.

From a historical perspective, I find Woodard (a journalist) remarkably groundbreaking. He breaks away from a trend that has plagued the historical field since the days of the U.S revolution and introduced the newer transnational style that better explains historical progression. Transnational history is not anything new to historians, but to the general public it represents a major shift. Woodward does this successfully because of his entertaining, lively, and smart writing. His style of writing is meant for a popular audience, but he does not allow this to prevent him from providing deep analysis and a rich history of each region. Each chapter is filled with details but never does it feel dense or overwhelming, a difficult achievement. Woodard also provides an answer to those skeptics of the humanities and the generally uninterested who repeatedly ask "why is history important? Why does studying this even matter?" He demonstrates that history is a framework to understand our modern world, views, actions, and events. Without understanding historical development and progression, those skeptics will be left misunderstanding and miss-explaining current debates and political shifts. Rarely do things spontaneously occur, there is almost always a progression. Woodard demonstrates that historical understanding is needed more today than ever before.