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This book is from the early 1980's and argues that North America is divided into nine nations. Do you believe this is still true to this day or is it a dated idea?
I think the idea was dated in the 80s too.
I think America is more divided now but not in these dated divisions.
Although there's still tons of regional divides I think the divide between urban/suburban and rural is more prominent than regional divides.
I love hearing the difference in accents as you go across the country. But what I have noticed is that the city accent differences are more subtle from city to city but more pronounced from rural area to rural area. I guess that globalization affects cities at a rapid rate but affect rural areas faster.
America is becoming more and more urban.
It's not that the regional cultures, accents, etc are gone, it's just that the regions are not as monolithic as they used to be.
"MexAmerica" should probably be 2 regions. If "The Islands" is a separate region, I think Southern California should be because of the Asian presence in that mix. One could chip away at "Breadbasket" from three directions but it probably stays for now.
The author looked at historical migration patterns as part of his analysis,
so like Garreau in "Nine Nations," Woodard ignores state lines... his "Midlands" region sprawls across
all sorts of boundaries.
About 10 years ago, I read a book which is in a similar vein. The title is "Our Patchwork Nation", which was written by Dante Chinni, along with James Gimpel.
The gist of this book is that you can understand the USA's complex cultural and political landscape by studying 12 distinct types of communities. This book illustrates how America's diversity often defies conventional wisdom.
Additionally, many villages in Michigan have a downtown area, which is a trademark of "Yankeeland" and something you rarely observe in, say, Maryland or Pennsylvania, both of which are geographically closer to New England than Michigan.
Unfortunately, there is very little exchange between Michigan and the New England states in the modern era, so most people would be unable to observe the similarities of the two regions.
This book elaborates on the cultural crossover between Michigan and the New England states and discusses how the original Yankee settlers, many of whom were actually from New York State and one or two generations removed from New England, left a deep imprint on the culture of Michigan that has endured for centuries now: https://msupress.org/9780870138256/yankees-in-michigan/
It doesn’t look that accurate, but it does echo the geography classes I took in college. I was particularly fascinated by the regions it broke the US into. I can’t recall them now, but his basic premise that you have to understand the regionalisms still holds up.
This book is from the early 1980's and argues that North America is divided into nine nations. Do you believe this is still true to this day or is it a dated idea?
My wife and daughter just completed an 11-day drive from my Southern city to Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
We were talking about this very book as we drove. Completely on target. Geography has so much bearing on the economies, cultures, and lifestyles of a region.
There are many ways to divide up the regions of the US. And they all will have their faults, because by their nature they are attempting to generalize a large area. For instance, in the 9 above, you've got San Fran lumped in with Alaska?
I think that's pretty accurate, actually. In particular, they nail the line between the south and the agricultural Midwest. Essentially I70/I44
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