StephenT -
I would like to hear your critique of the 11 Nations framework. I
recently read the book
and found it fascinating. The book is well researched and documented
- though the reading
style of the book is in the "popular-style" as opposed to an academic
textbook-style.
Thank you for asking. I appreciate that you have read his book.
No simple binary subdivision of this country (red/blue, north/south,
urban/rural, etc) is likely to be more than of limited use in
understanding "who we are" and in my opinion, of getting off the
high-centered position we've been in for a (very?) long time.
As for my quibbles:
I'd want to split TX (and perhaps the OK/KS parts of Appalachia) and
give them to a separate Texas itself... despite Daniel Boone and the
Alamo and all that. They are specifically bellicose enough to demand
their own identity and sadly, that alone might be enough to grant it to
them. I believe their affinities to the West and the South are
different than the rest of Appalachia.
I was surprised to see so much of the upper Midwest declared part of
Yankeedom. I don't have a lot of direct experience, so my opinions
here are very thin. I'd be inclined to coin a "Rustbelt Nation"
running from PA across OH, capturing Chicago and the WI/MI industrial
centers.
I think his distinction between the Far West and El Norte are overstated
but that is probably my own myopia, having spent my life in those regions.
More importantly, I think he mischaracterizes the West's "dependence on
the Federal Government". The railroad and the post-civil war
strengthening of the Federal Government *did* lead the bulk of the
resources/land in the west to be owned by the US government and made
available to big industry at a discount to exploit.
The *people* of the west, however, were already operating small scale,
subsistence "extractive" industry... they were ranchers, farmers,
prospectors, hunters/trappers. Big money/industry co-opted not only
their labor but their hearts and minds to some extent. It was still
happening in MY youth (60's, 70's and beyond) with big money/industry
offering good/quick money in return for support by the locals to do more
and more invasive things in their homelands. They pitted the locals
against "the Feds", all the while surely buying "the Feds" off back in
DC. Gun culture in the west derives from a very real recent (1-2
generations) utility to most of it.
I think of the book as a modern day version of the layered invasions
of the British Isles over
the last 1500 years. The original Celts then the usual-suspects of
Angles, Saxons, Vikings,
Normans - and in the recent 50+ years - American Pop Culture. I say
modern-day as the
11 Nations formed in the last 400 years rather than the 1500 of the
British Isles invasions.
I think something similar can be found everywhere. For example when you
think of the Byzantine then Roman colonizations, then how the various
Mongols/Huns/Vandals/Goths etc. swept through Europe and even Northern
Africa, or the many peoples and influences in the Indian Subcontinent,
it is staggering.
I think we all see elements of his main thesis in our local areas. In
MSP, we have neighborhoods
that historically were settled by different ethnic groups - lots of
Scandinavians in this region.
In recent decades we have Hmong, Somali, and Mid-East cultures
settling in.
MSP? I'm not sure I know where you hail from.. the UK?
The article you linked referred to a Woodard article at Tufts. I link
it here. It takes the basic
11 Nations Framework and uses it to review gun violence in America.
Coming from a neo-frontier gun-culture, I am saddened by the texture and
the level of gun abuse/violence we have today. It is paralleled (and
surely eclipsed) by the violence we do to ourselves and eachother
through addiction and economic warfare (home and abroad). I think
much of our gun violence has roots in deeper places (poverty, addiction,
loss of identity)... one can say "guns don't kill people" "people do" or
"bullets do" but our socioeconomic conditions are what set the stage for
it in many ways.
I have seen other articles
by Mr. Woodard concerning the Tea Party in reference to the early
October Gov't shut-down.
See my thoughts on Tea Party under separate cover.
If this turns out to be a little (more than usual) ragged, it is because
my internet has been out most of the day and I'm now trying to get this
out in case I lose it again.
- Steve
At Tuffs on Gun Violence:
http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2013/features/up-in-arms.html
At Washington Monthly on Gov't Shutdown:
Oct. 15, 2013: Regional Differences Have Doomed the Tea Party
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2013/10/regional_differences_have_doom047323.php
Nov/Dec 2011: A Geography Lesson for the Tea Party
---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/novemberdecember_2011/features/a_geography_lesson_for_the_tea032846.php?page=all
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cultures/dp/0143122029
I admit to lacking the chops to professionally "vet" Mr. Woodard's
theory. However, the book
has verisimilitude in its structure and is heavily documented. I
hope to hear more from you
for an additional point-of-view.
Thanks,
StephT
On 11/8/2013 11:27 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
An alternative view to the (I can't help but hear it in Dr. Suess'
cadence) Red-State Blue-State version of Murrica. I don't agree
with it in detail but in sweeping generalizations (5.5x less general
than red/blue?) it captures what I know our cultural "melting pot" to
be crufted into:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of-the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in/
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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