Colin Woodard at The Maine Historical Society

Tonight I had the opportunity to listen to Colin Woodard, author of The Lobster Coast, talk at the Maine Historical Society on Congress Street in Portland. The emphasis of the talk was not on The Lobster Coast, but rather his new book called American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.

Woodard gave a brief, but insightful lecture on his new book and what his research encompassed, focusing on as the title of the book says, eleven different cultural regions, not only within the United States, but Canada and Mexico as well, including even information about the indigenous population of Greenland in his presentation.

One of the most interesting concepts Woodard seemed to argue in front of a crowd of 50-60 people at the Maine Historical Society was that while the people of the United States were glued together by the common bond of the principles of liberty and freedom, the interpretation of those words by the rival cultures are much different.

Woodard talks of how the cultures of the southern United States, like the Deep South, Tide Water, and Greater Appalachia, hold greater value to individualism and individual freedom than most northerners. Instead many northerners in cultural regions he calls Yankeedom and the Middle West are bonded together as communities, and believe more in the sense of community freedom with government stepping in to provide essential services and programs to benefit citizens since the beginning of society in North America. 

What seems to be much different about the research Woodard presents in his book is that he maps out these cultural regions on a highly detailed basis, county by county, since the beginning of settlement in North America. From that starting point he is able to bring readers all the way through to the present, and apply the notion of these rival regional cultures to American society today.

The Pine Tree State falls under the region of Yankeedom in Woodard's book, not surprisingly. Maine is categorized with the rest of New England, New York, some of Pennsylvania, and even states deep into what we now know as the mid-west. Woodard argues that our cultural values as a state mirrors those of the rest of New England, and even states like North Dakota and Michigan.

After the lecture Woodard was more than happy to hang around to sign books and answer any lingering questions members of the audience may have had. He seemed excited to be speaking in Portland about the new book, even though he had a very limited amount of time to talk about it. Woodard seemed extremly knowledgeable and passionate in the topic he was presenting.

This was Woodard's fourth book, but he is well known as an experienced journalist for the publications Down East and The Christian Science Monitor as well.