I'm pleased that my hometown paper -- the Maine Sunday Telegram / Portland Press Herald -- has picked up my OpEd on American regionalism. Local print readers will find it on the front of the Telegram's Viewpoints section today.For those further afield, the Telegram also has a sneak preview of the revised map of the American Nations Today, which will be in the Penguin paperback edition of American Nations, to be released in the fall.
On this map, we bumped up the state-level borders a notch to make it easier for people to find their way around the continent, added a label to South Florida (since everyone asks about it), and corrected four small errors I made when drawing the county map. The latter errors -- all my oversight -- were the inadvertant placement of Allegheny Co., Pa. and St. Charles Co., St. Louis Co., and St. Louis City, Mo. in Greater Appalachia, when the book text has them (correctly, I believe) in The Midlands. (Well, to get really technical, St. Louis, Chicago, Monterey, and New Orleans are all border cities split between nations, but on the county level map they each have to be assigned to one "nation" or the other.) My apologies for the errors, and thanks to Portland-based mapmaker Sean Wilkinson for continued maintenance help.
Also in American Nations news: The New Maine Times reviewed the book last week and, this morning, New Hampshire Public Radio rebroadcast my hour-long interview with Laura Knoy. Thanks for all the attention in this northeastern corner of Yankeedom.
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I heard your interview on NHPR on my drive home to Massachusetts on President's Day, and downloaded the book to my Nook when I got home. I'm not very far in reading it yet, but really liking it so far.
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in looking at the GOP primary results by the regions you describe, but was wondering if you had a publicly available list of the counties in US states (and Canadian provinces and Mexican states also) that you identify as part of each region?
Glad you're enjoying the book. I've just finished compiling an initial spreadsheet of those, but should have something I'd be willing to share in the coming weeks. Can you drop me a reminder via email: www.colinwoodard.com/contact
DeleteWhat cultural region would you consider Washington D.C. to be
ReplyDeleteThe District itself is a federal zone outside the official model. Montgomery and PG counties are Midlands. Arlington, Fairfax, and Alexandria (as well as the southern MD counties) are Tidewater. DC was placed where it was in essence because it straddled the border of two key cultures. (Originally, the District included the "rest of the diamond shape" in Arlington.)
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