
American Nations
A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
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Narrated by:
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Walter Dixon
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By:
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Colin Woodard
About this listen
An illuminating history of North America's 11 rival cultural regions that explodes the red state/blue state myth.
North America was settled by people with distinct religious, political, and ethnographic characteristics, creating regional cultures that have been at odds with one another ever since. Subsequent immigrants didn't confront or assimilate into an "American" or "Canadian" culture, but rather into one of the 11 distinct regional ones that spread over the continent, each staking out mutually exclusive territory.
In American Nations, Colin Woodard leads us on a journey through the history of our fractured continent and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. He illustrates and explains why "American" values vary sharply from one region to another.
Woodard reveals how intranational differences have played a pivotal role at every point in the continent's history, from the American Revolution and the Civil War to the tumultuous sixties and the "blue county/red county" maps of recent presidential elections. American Nations is a revolutionary and revelatory take on America's myriad identities and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and are molding our future.
©2011 Colin Woodward (P)2011 Gildan Media CorpListeners also enjoyed...
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indigenous Continent
- By katherine on 07-09-23
By: Pekka Hamalainen
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American Colonies: The Settling of North America
- Penguin History of the United States, Book 1
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States series, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from millennia past through the decades of Western colonization and conquest and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast.
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Excellent ..
- By aintbuyinit on 09-03-18
By: Alan Taylor
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Disunited Nations
- The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
- By: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan, Roy Worley
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power. Germany will decline as the most powerful country in Europe, with France taking its place. Every country should prepare for the collapse of China, not North Korea. We are already seeing, as Zeihan predicts, a shift in outlook on the Middle East: it is no longer Iran that is the region’s most dangerous threat, but Saudi Arabia.
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brilliant geopolitical primer re the future
- By Howard on 04-11-20
By: Peter Zeihan
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The Future of Geography
- How the Competition in Space Will Change Our World (Politics of Place)
- By: Tim Marshall
- Narrated by: Tim Marshall
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Humans are venturing up and out, and we’re taking our competitive spirit with us. Soon, what happens in space will shape human history as much the mountains, rivers, and seas have impacted civilizations around the world. It’s no coincidence that Russia, China, and the USA are leading the way. The next fifty years will change the face of global politics and the world order as we know it. In this must-listen work, bestselling author Tim Marshall navigates the new astropolitical reality to show how we got here and where we’re heading.
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Good Overview of Astro Politics
- By Gary on 04-18-24
By: Tim Marshall
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Spice
- The 16th-Century Contest That Shaped the Modern World
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.
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Spice or Megellan?
- By BarbieAlaska on 06-21-24
By: Roger Crowley
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America
- And Four Who Tried to Save Her
- By: Brion McClanahan
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the 44 presidents who have led the United States, nine made mistakes that permanently scarred the nation. Which nine? Brion McClanahan, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers and The Founding Fathers' Guide to the Constitution, will surprise listeners with his list, which he supports with exhaustive and entertaining evidence.
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Political opinion without substance.
- By Ella's Dad on 04-27-18
By: Brion McClanahan
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How to Hide an Empire
- A History of the Greater United States
- By: Daniel Immerwahr
- Narrated by: Luis Moreno
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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We are familiar with maps that outline all 50 states. And we are also familiar with the idea that the United States is an "empire", exercising power around the world. But what about the actual territories - the islands, atolls, and archipelagos - this country has governed and inhabited? In How to Hide an Empire, author Daniel Immerwahr tells the fascinating story of the United States outside the United States. In crackling, fast-paced prose, he reveals forgotten episodes that cast American history in a new light.
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How to beat a straw man to death
- By Susan on 01-25-20
By: Daniel Immerwahr
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Enlightenment Now
- The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
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We live in the best of all times
- By Neuron on 02-25-18
By: Steven Pinker
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An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
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I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
What listeners say about American Nations
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- Anonymous User
- 01-03-22
A wonderful new paradigm for American history
This is a book every American needs to read to better understand the United States. Mr. Woodard gives a compelling new history of the North American continent through these "American nations" and provides a cogent unifying theory for the many threads of American history. my one complaint is that Woodard arguably fails to give African-Americans proper billing as a distinct American nation. but overall this is my favorite new volume on the United States' history and political direction.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Eryka
- 11-13-17
Decidedly Average
Interesting take on the nations that make up America and the coalitions that have gotten us to where we are, though performance was rather pedestrian and conclusions often convoluted rather than concise.
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1 person found this helpful
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- MikeFarr
- 08-20-19
Important thesis, personally demonstrated
The thesis that America is composed of 9 actual nations is extremely important and makes so much of our history finally make sense. I recommend it for that. The cultures of these sub nations are remarkably persistent over the centuries. They hold amazing power over their inhabitants.
Unfortunately Woodward then demonstrates his own channeled thinking by repeating negative stereotypes of southerners and grotesquely misrepresenting modern events in a way that showcases his own political biases.
In the epilogue he breathlessly relates a utopia being created by Native American tribes along collectivist ideals, where there is no private property, environmental preservation and anti corporate policies is the norm and this is all overseen by women leaders because unlike men they will put the good of the tribe first.
In an unintended way he beautifully provides a first person example of just how rigidly any of 9 national cultures can control and perpetuate false belief systems.
And no, I really don’t think every southerner hates science, wants to reinstate creationism, eliminate all but religious schools, cut taxes on the rich, raise them on the poor and do this all before 5pm when the go to their white supremacy meetings.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ellen Krechel
- 05-13-19
Very interesting
Really facinating book about the cultural differences that started with early immigrants and continues today in our political system.
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- Joseph
- 09-11-20
Incredible
A history of North America that will help anyone understand the diversity of peoples and ideologies on the continent. A map of where we have been and ideas about the way forward.
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- John Micheal O'Neal
- 10-19-20
Wow!
This is really a brilliant take on the history of the United States and the impact that competing ways of thinking have impacted not only the creation of the United States, but still evoke conflict through out the United States today. This should be required reading for anyone who is confused by the contradictions that make up the experience of living in America today.
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- John Marino
- 11-02-18
Book gets better and better as it progresses .
Very well researched. Gets you to realize the U.S. didn't get to this point very easily.
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- Mike A
- 10-03-21
Slantee
I enjoyed the book. The last few chapters left me feeling the narrative was very liberal slanted. It was a turn off for me.
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- Tom
- 10-14-20
Interesting, though a lot to wade through
Much of what I heard I had known and much I had not. I found the book interesting and well written, as well as well narrated. Yet, a wealth of information comes so fast and the book moves from one culture to another to another, etc., rather quickly, that I found much went in one ear (I use a Bluetooth, so in only one ear) and out the other without stopping to give me time absorb it. Had I to do it again, I would buy the tangible book, where I assume one would have maps and be able to reread pages (it's not as effective as rewinding the audio, though I did this many times).
I read one review which complained that the book reflected a bias against America or something to that effect. Certainly, the book would not knowingly be used in the suggested "patriotic American history" curriculum that has recently been proposed. There are criticisms of all cultures, some quite severe. Yet, based on the knowledge I took to the book, the unpleasant facts did not seem exaggerated.
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- Bo Ghareeb
- 12-12-21
Palestine not lipestine
The Audible version of the book screwed up by reading Palestinian Lipestinians. I am sure it an honest mistake but a mistake at all. The word is not obscure or too exotic.
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