The polarized electorate isn’t blue/red or urban/rural. It’s the colonizing projects of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Colin Woodard
Colin Woodard, author of American Nations, is the director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. His new book is Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America.
Posted inBooks
America’s Black Founders
David Hackett Fischer demonstrates the centrality of people of African descent in shaping this country’s regional cultures.
Posted inApril/May/June 2022
Can Diverse Democracies Survive?
Without the glue of a shared national narrative, probably not.
Posted inNovember/December 2021
Why Daniel Boone Might Not be Canceled
The archetypal frontiersman was unsure about the colonial project he built.
Posted inJanuary/February/March 2021, Magazine
How Joe Biden Can Help Forge a New National Narrative
To survive as a democracy, Trump’s ethno-nationalist story of America must be defeated.
Posted inBooks, July/August 2020, Magazine, Main
What Makes Today’s Dictators Different
They rely more on demagoguery than secret police—but they’re just as dangerous.
Posted inFeatured, Political Animal, Politics
How America’s Earliest Colonists Dictate Today’s Coronavirus Response
Disparities in the reaction to COVID-19 mirror centuries-old cultural and ideological fissures.
Posted inBooks, Magazine, September/October 2019
When Leaving Your Children Is a Selfless Act
How one family’s journey from the Philippines to Texas tells the story of global migration.
Posted inFeatured, Politics
The Midterms Highlighted America’s Dangerous Regional Divides
The United States looks more and more like a set of different nations divided by geography.
Posted inPolitical Animal
The American Nations and the 2016 Election
America’s distinct regional cultures helps explain our deep political divisions.
