Speaking on American Nations, Bridgton, Maine, July 9

For those in the Sebago Lakes, Maine-to-North Conway, New Hampshire corridor, I'll be speaking about the American Nations and their effect on our history and current events in Bridgton, Maine this Thursday, July 9th.

My host is the Bridgton Historical Society for which this is the annual summer lecture. It starts at 7pm at their Narramissic Farm. It's open to the public, but they're raising money for the institution, so tickets are $8, and you can get them here.

Here's the Society's description of the talk, which comes out of my most recent book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, with a bit of Lobster Coast to boot:

Thursday July 9, 7 p.m. at Narramissic, the Society will host its featured summer lecture.  We are pleased to host Colin Woodard, award-winning Maine author of American Nations, who will talk about Maine's cultural heritage.  Our immigrant ancestors helped to shape our culture of self-reliance, local governance, and the thrifty hardworking lifestyle that helped to promote innovation and industry.  It also helps explain our particularly New England character.  "There's never been one America," Colin Woodard argues in this award-winning book, "but rather several Americas, each with its own, centuries-old ideals, values, and religious and cultural heritage. Understanding the real map of the continent and its rival cultures is essential to grasping our history, from the divisions of the American Revolution and Civil War to the 'blue county / red county' maps of past and recent elections." A reception will be precede the event at 6:30, and a there will be a book signing fter the lecture--so bring your treasured copies of his books, or buy some at the event.

For more information, follow this link.

My next entirely public talk is for the community read (on Lobster Coast) in Damariscotta, Maine in August. Talks in Ames, Iowa and Nassau, the Bahamas follow in the fall.

Our Disunited States

For your Fourth of July reading pleasure, I bring you my take on our Disunited States in Politico Magazine. It's the weekly "cover story" so it has to be good.

It's a peculiar article in that I was tasked with explaining the United States' disunity -- via American Nations of course -- without explicitly mentioning the American Nations or unpacking the framework. Still, it seems to have gotten plenty of attention, and hopefully a subset of readers will dig further to uncover the full picture.

Factoid I learned while researching this article: the Fourth of July was celebrated in the Confederacy at least until 1864. As in the Antebellum Period, they chose to pretend the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence didn't exist, instead focusing on the other stuff about just rebellions against tyrants, the virtues of self-governance and all that un-revolutionary stuff. Fascinating.

This article also marks a milestone: the first national media mention of my new book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, out with Viking on March 15, 2016.

For those new to my take on American regionalism, I've created synopses here and here.

My last piece for Politico Magazine was on Hungary's abandonment of liberal democracy, which came out just a couple weeks back.

On Maine-New Brunswick border, a banner year for a newly liberated fish

I was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick last week and learned that the St. Croix River's alewives -- which the Maine legislature banned from the river for 18 years -- are having a banner spawning run. Details are in my story in yesterday's Portland Press Herald.

The river's alewives have been at the center of a strange, science-denying political story for several years, one I visited in detail in this piece in 2012. I followed up on the story here, here, here, here, here, and here, and colleague Kevin Miller reported on a recent, unsuccessful effort by bass fishing guides to restrict the fish. [Update, 6/25/19: An update on the alewives story.]

 More stories from my trip East of Downeast are coming up.

Hungary's slide from democracy, Part II

For those not sure how to spend the rest of the spring solstice and Father's Day, let me suggest a review of the memoir of the former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, Eleni Kounalakis.

Kounalakis served in Budapest for the first three years of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's rule, a period in which he's turned Hungary away from liberal democracy and towards something closer to Russia, Singapore and China. Her book is surprisingly frank and paints a disturbing picture of the direction of the Hungarian state.

The review, which appears in today's Sunday Washington Post, is my second piece this week on the situation back in Hungary, where I lived for more than four years between 1989 and 1996, and where I returned recently. The previous one -- on Orban's construction of what he calls the "illiberal state" -- appeared in Politico Magazine a few days ago.

My most recent review for the Post was of former Rep. Barney Frank's memoir.

Maine: tribal effort to lift printing ban on portions of state constitution fails

For those following the strange story of Maine's redacted constitution: the effort to overturn the 1875 constitutional amendment supressing the printing of a section dealing with duties to the state's Indians has failed.

As I reported in today's Portland Press Herald, a bill that would have put the issue out to voters in a referendum was gutted after lawmakers became fearful of the possible cost of printing an additional ballot.

Rep. Henry Bear of the Maliseet tribe, the bill's sponsor, learned of the redacted passages of the constitution from reading my Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram series "Unsettled." (This piece in particular.) The bill initially had near unanimous support in the judicial committee.

Bear did not respond to requests for comment.

Hungary's slide from democracy, Part I

I was recently in Hungary, where I lived for some five years between 1989 and 1996, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been making good on his promise to construct an "illiberal state" inside the European Union. In Politico Magazine today you can read my dispatch on the situation there.

A teaser: most worrisome is that the only effective opposition to Orban comes from the extreme right Jobbik Party, which are on the ascent despite not long ago maintaining a jackbooted paramilitary group that marched through Roma neighborhoods wearing uniforms and symbols reminiscent of the Nazi-era Arrow Cross.

A sad state of affairs for Hungary, which when I first moved there was leading the drive for democracy and independence in the Eastern bloc.


For those with a focused interest in Orban's rhetorical argument, reading his full "illiberal democracy" speech is clarifying.

More on Hungary coming soon.... [Update, 6/21/15: That was a reference to this review of former US Ambassador Eleni Kounalakis's memoir of her term in Hungary, which ran in today's Washington Post.]

Maine: legislators consider bill to print redacted sections of state constitution

In today's Portland Press Herald, I have a story on a bill before the state legislature to remove a constitutionally imposed ban on publishing sections of the state constitution which enumerate the state's treaty duties to Indian tribes, even though the passages remain in force.

The bill, LD 893, was endorsed 11-1 by the legislature's judicial committee and is expected to go to floor votes this week. It will create a constitutional amendment referendum question on this November's ballot that asks if the hidden portions of the constitution should again be printed.

Nobody testified against the bill in its public hearing last month. The only mtember of the judiciary committee to vote against it, Rep. Stacey Guerin, R-Hartland, did not respond to interview requests, so it is not known what her objection is.

Rep. Henry Bear of the Maliseet tribe, the bill's sponsor, learned of the redacted passages of the constitution from reading the Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram series "Unsettled." (This piece in particular.)

[Update, 6/19/15: The effort failed, replaced by a weak resolution.]