World Wide Woodard: Alaska

Showing posts with label Alaska. Show all posts

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Interior Department whistleblower is a Mainer

For Thursday's Portland Press Herald I interviewed Joel Clement, the Department of Interior scientist and research director who wrote a fiery op-ed in Wednesday's Washington Post alleging the Trump administration and Secretary Ryan Zinke had retaliated against him for continuing to call attention to the climate change-driven plight of northern Alaskan Native villages.

Turns out Clement is from Falmouth, Maine, and from a family that tangled with native people back in the 1750s, ironically enough.

Enjoy the story.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Alaska, Hawaii and the American Nations

Of all the criticisms of the American Nations paradigm I field from people who have not actually read American Nations -- but rather seen the Washington Post or Business Insider summary of the book -- the "why didn't you include Alaska/Hawaii 'cause they're part of America" one is perhaps the most droll.

Yes, I'm aware that Alaska and Hawaii are in the United States, and also that South Florida is as well, and that Newfoundland is part of Canada. As readers of the book know, all of those areas save Alaska are not part of the eleven regional cultures whose history is described in great detail in the book. It's not that they're "not part of the U.S./Canada/North America," it's that for practical purposes it didn't make sense to relate their entire history, given the small and historically recent role they've played in the story of the U.S. and Canada, the real subjects of the book. (For those who are curious, Newfoundland (a self-governing British colony until after World War II) is an Anglo-Irish culture of its own, one predating the other Euro-American nations on the Eastern half of the continent); South Florida is part of a maritime Spanish colonial area with an impressive history all its own, and a culture distinct from El Norte; Hawaii (which joined the U.S. after World War II) is part of the Greater Polynesian cultural region.

Alaska is treated in the book, as it was colonized or settled by the regional cultures American Nations explores. It's shared between a Left Coast area (Juneau and pan handle), a Far Western one (in Central Alaska) and the area still dominated, like Greenland and much of the Canadian Far North, by First Nation.

Thanks to Will Mitchell and Nathan Broaddus at Portland, Maine's NBT Solutions for creating the map from which the image above is drawn.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Super Tuesday and the American Nations

I'm pleased to note that the results of the ten "Super Tuesday" G.O.P. nominating contests fit very nicely with the political geography outlined in American Nations. Newt Gingrich, for instance, can't manage to win a single county in the regional cultures I call Yankeedom and the Midlands, which makes his nomination all but impossible. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum also have striking regional strengths and weaknesses, explaining their county-by-county performances in (culturally-divided) battleground states like Ohio.

But I ramble. For a discussion of all of this, check out my latest piece over at Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square.

Friday, February 10, 2012

OpEd on American regionalism picked up by McClatchy

My recent OpEd on American regionalism is making the rounds after having been picked up by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service. Originally written for last Sunday's edition of the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star, in the past 48 hours its run in at least five other U.S. dailies. (Some versions are shortened from the original). Hopefully this list includes one near you: