American nations

What Hacker News says

1. ventanaJul 2026
   Noticing how many comment threads here discuss that America is something, has become something, or is not something, I just wanted to remind everyone, especially those not living in the US, that the US combines several very difficult cultures which have different ideas of community, Christianity, civic duty, and everything. The first book I read on this topic was "American Nations" by Colin Woodard (highly recommended), and after visiting several states in different parts of the US, I try to be very cautious before making any statements about the US as a whole.
   Show morethread
2. jghnSep 2025
   There's an entire book from the author on this topic [1]

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/American-Nations-History-Regional-Cul...

   thread
3. snapetomSep 2025
   Second American Nations. I take issue with, in parts of it he has an elitist, typical Yankee patronizing tone against the South, but overall it’s well done work. As far as I know, it is the most comprehensive work in highlighting the diversity in culture and history of the US, and why we appear to be so divisive.

   If you read news and opinion articles from the early 1900’s you’ll find that many authors are saying the same thing as people say today. In context of American Nations, the answer is “we’ve always been like that.”

   Show morethread
4. zachroseOct 2024
   Applying Albion’s Seed to California misses out on Spanish missionary culture and the shipping merchants who came from New York City, which does not have the same puritan roots as New England.

   American Nations is a more recent book that describes more of the United States, though with less depth.

   thread
5. YossarianFrPrezAug 2023
   If you are interested in this, there are two related books -- American Nations [1] which was inspired by The Nine Nations of North America [2] as well as the data presented in the link above -- that explore geographic variation in American subcultures. There is also some recent work in personality psychology that aims to get at regional variation in culture (see [3], for example.)

   [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Nations

   [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nine_Nations_of_North_Amer...

   [3] Geographical Psychology, Peter J. Rentfrow. Current Opinion in Psychology. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X1...

   Show morethread
6. matt_sApr 2023
   What geo? If you want a historical US perspective there is a book titled American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures by Colin Woodward.

   Spoiler alert - many areas of the US have political leanings shaped by the people that originally settled there (and by settled I mean mostly Europeans ousting the original people that were there).

   thread