“American Nations” – The real map of North America’s 11 rival nations

The United States is not one nation, but a federation of nations with their own unique histories and cultures.  These nations spill over traditional national boundaries encompassing most of North America, and explain most of the political conflicts that now consume U.S. politics.  And the divisions are intensifying.

This is the proposition of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.  (Penguin, 2011)  Author Colin Woodard brings to bear a combination of historical and statistical analysis down to county levels to map those nations.  Resonant with earlier work such as Joel Garreau’s The Nine Nations of North America, Woodard’s analysis is far more refined.  As a lifetime student of regionalist literature, I would say Woodard has accomplished the most skillful mapping of the continent’s real cultural regions to date.

The outcomes in U.S. political life are clear – the division of red and blue states, deadlock at the federal level, government shutdowns, the split between urban and rural voters.  Issue after issue, from abortion to gay marriage, takes on a distinct geography.  That extends in a big way to climate change and the differing responses by the 11 nations.  Having experienced those politics directly, I will in this series focus on the implications of Woodard’s mapping for climate policy in the U.S.

First, the nations.  Woodward broke the continent down by county lines, which seem increasingly to be the most cogent defining lines in American political life.  This is a point brought out as well by Bill Bishop in The Big Sort, good companion reading to American Nations.  Here's the map.  Click on for larger view.  

Yankeedom – Culturally shaped by its Puritan forbears, this region stretching from New England to the Great Lakes, is characterized by an emphasis on education, the common good, and the positive powers of government to guide society.  Ideas of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism derive from Yankeedom, which is driven to reform all the rest of the nations.  Predictably they see the Yankees as busybodies who can’t mind their own business. 

New Netherland – The New York metropolitan area, still echoing its original Dutch culture of tolerance of diversity and freedom of inquiry, as well as freewheeling mercantilism.

Midlands – An oddly shaped strip beginning with the Quaker origin point around Philadelphia, snaking out across the Midwest and encircling Yankeedom to encompass Ontario, the Midlands is characterized by pluralism, an emphasis on middle class values, and a non-ideological politics skeptical of government.

Tidewater – Founded in Virginia by the Cavaliers seeking to re-create English manor life, Tidewater has an aristocratic heritage.  Its area is limited to the Atlantic coast, and is slowly retreating before the Midlands, as can be seen in places such as Northern Virginia

Greater Appalachia – Spanning the center of the US from the Appalachian Mountains through the border states to Texas, this nation was formed by Scotch-Irish from the borderlands of the northern British Isles.  Near constant warfare fostered a warrior ethic and an emphasis on individual liberty, with a resistance to government and elites public and private.  This is the home ground of Christian fundamentalism, as well as a disproportionate share of those in military service.

Deep South – Founded by immigrants from the notably vicious slaveocracy of Barbados around Charleston, South Carolina, this nation extends through much of North Carolina and out to East Texas.  With a more virulent brand of slavery than Tidewater, the Deep South led the Civil War secession movement.  Today the region continues as a low-wage area under the rule of economic elites.

New France – The French settlers of Quebec spawned the continent’s most liberal and egalitarian culture.  The Acadians deported from the Canadian maritime provinces centuries ago provide New France with a salient in Southern Louisiana.

El Norte – Actually the oldest of the nations dating back to the 1500s, El Norte is an Anglo-Mexican hybrid taking in the U.S. Southwest and Northern Mexico from the Gulf to Pacific coasts, including Los Angeles, and north through New Mexico and Southern Colorado.  The region is now majority Latino.

Far West – The dry lands from the Great Plains to the Sierras and Cascades, the Far West is characterized by environmental limitations that barred much small-scale agricultural settlement.  Instead development has been driven by large natural resource and railroad corporations.  The resource colony history still heavily influences politics in the region.

Left Coast – The maritime Pacific strip from Northern California through British Columbia and Southeast Alaska, the Left Coast was shaped by Yankee traders who founded the cities and the Greater Applachians who settled the countryside.  That has given the culture a unique combination of Yankee public spirit and individual self-realization.  I am a child of the Midlands but have lived most of my life on the Left Coast.  Woodard’s analysis tells me why. 

First Nation – The northern portion of the continent, the largest nation in territory and the smallest in population, the indigenous still rule here and maintain traditional cultures.  They are also pointing toward a more ecological future.

To those who object that the original cultures of most of these “nations” have long been overrun by immigrants, Woodard offers the doctrine of first effective settlement.  The original settlers form the prevailing culture, which is adopted by subsequent immigrants.

In the next installment I will correlate the 11 nations to the geography of climate politics in the U.S. and Canada.  I’ll give you my download on federal climate politics as well, and how the nations have arrayed against one another.

The Return of Cascadia Planet

In December 1994, back in the early days of the World Wide Web, a website named Cascadia Planet went live.  It focused on local and regional solutions to global sustainability challenges.

I was editor of the site, coming from a 1980s-90s movement background in Northwest ancient forest preservation and sustainable cities.  Then based in Portland, Oregon, I had written a Green City column for years and helped lead a community stakeholder process that generated a Green City vision for the Portland region in 1991. 

Many of those people who participated in that stakeholder process went on to make the vision happen.  Portland has since become known as a national sustainability leader. In 1993 it became the first city with a climate action plan, since successfully reducing carbon emissions per city resident.  The book, How Green Is Your City?,  gave Portland the #1 rating.   (My current city, Seattle, ranks #3.)

I came to Cascadia Planet with that experience in mind.  Places and regions could make solid contributions to global challenges such as climate change.  We didn’t have to wait for national governments to act. 

From 1991 on I was aware of another group that had the same vision, Atmosphere Alliance out of Olympia, Washington.  The group put out a publication called No Sweat News, a digest of climate and clean energy news from around the world.  In the first year of Cascadia Planet, a new edition announced a refined mission, to make the Pacific Northwest a global warming solutions leader.  On my page.  I called group founder Rhys Roth and offered a web presence.  Rhys took me up on my offer.

Cascadia Planet experienced its own dot.bomb crash several years in advance of the rest of the world.  We had trouble assembling a business model, so we let the site go inactive in 1997.

Meanwhile I continued to collaborate with Rhys on a series of climate and energy projects that led to the formation of a group called Climate Solutions in 1998.  It was a merger of Atmosphere Alliance and a storefront community education project called Energy Outreach Center, led by Paul Horton.  Climate Solutions took up the regional mission, with ripple effects around the nation and world including: 

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     California’s first-in-the-US economy-wide carbon cap

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The US Conference of Mayors climate commitment which has spurred action from New York and Chicago down to small communities

The first-ever Energy Title of the US Farm Bill which has channeled hundreds of millions of dollars to farm-based clean energy projects all over the country

Initiatives for genuinely sustainable biofuels that have now spurred stakeholder-based roadmapping processes on several continents

Advanced efforts to deploy carbon-cutting smart electric power grids in the Northwest and elsewhere

Continuing work that links the West Coast states and British Columbia to lead on climate even as national governments are gridlocked.

            Of course, lots of other people have their fingerprints on these great accomplishments.  But in many cases Climate Solutions provided the vital link.  The “It’s a Wonderful Life” story of what the world would have looked like without the group would, I believe, be one in which much climate action of national and global significance would not have taken place.

The past 15 years of Climate Solutions totally validated the original premise of Cascadia Planet, not to mention Atmosphere Alliance.  Actions in local and regional places make a big difference, no matter how stuck national governments are. 

After 15 years I am returning to work as a full-time writer, my occupation when I helped found the group.  I came to the group with a theory of local and regional change, with some practice at the local level in Portland.   The past 15 years have provided a magnificent opportunity to put theory into practice at the Northwest regional scale.  Now it is time to sit down at my writer’s desk and share what I have learned. 

One way I will do this is with this revived Cascadia Planet site.  I will relate my insights on climate change and solutions, and on the vital role of cities and regions in meeting what is clearly an emergent global sustainability crisis.  I will review books new and old that have something to say about this. 

And I will talk about what it means to be an American, a citizen of the country that invented this unsustainable world and which still has so much to say about whether we can put it on a sustainable basis.  There are different ways to organize our national life that enhance the capacity of cities, states and regions to address sustainability challenges.  There are also far more productive ways to relate to the world.  I will share some ideas and proposals in this regard.

So welcome back to Cascadia Planet!  I hope you will participate and share your insights with me.  We can address the most global of challenges in the places where we live, and make a great world for ourselves and our children.  The power is within our hands.