Project Director Colin Woodard’s new book goes on sale November 4 from Viking Press / Random House.
Nationhood Lab director Colin Woodard will be on tour this fall, speaking about his new book, Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America, which showcases the project’s work on regional divisions and the shared national narrative that can unite Americans again. Kirkus calls it “a lucid exercise in political geography with tremendous—and disturbing—explanatory power.”
The book, which was named a November must read by the Next Big Idea Club, goes on sale from Viking/Random House November 4. Woodard will be speaking about the book and meeting readers at events in six states and the District of Columbia. Come meet him if one of these events is near you. The dates are:
Nov. 3, Portland, ME, 7 pm: Longfellow Books and Mechanics Hall
Nov. 4, Belmont, MA., 7 pm: Belmont Books
Nov. 5, Newport, RI, 5:30 pm: Salve Regina University
Nov. 6, Brookville, NY, 7 pm: Theodore’s Books, Gold Coast Forum and Long Island University
Nov. 12, Shepherdstown, WV, 6:30 pm: Four Seasons Books and the Robert Byrd Center
Nov. 13, Washington, DC 7 pm: Politics & Prose, Connecticut Ave. flagship store
Nov. 18, Ann Arbor, MI, 6:30 pm: Schuler Books
Nov. 24, Skowhegan, ME, 10 am: Margaret Chase Smith Library
Dec. 2, Medford, MA, 5:30 pm: Tufts University
Dec. 4, Chicago, IL, 11 am: University of Illinois-Chicago
Dec. 13, Freeport, ME, 12:30 pm: Freeport Community Library
Here is the publisher’s description:
Our democracy has been purposefully dismantled, first in the states and now at the federal level. With groundbreaking original data and historical insights, Nations Apart is an essential guide to understanding why Americans are so divided on many hot button issues, creating geographic fissures that have been exploited by authoritarians. Colin Woodard shows how colonial era settlement patterns and the cultural geography they left behind are at the root of our political polarization, economic inequality, public health crises, and democratic collapse.
Drawing on quantitative research from Woodard’s university-based think tank project, Nations Apart exposes the true ideological and cultural divides behind today’s struggles over:
- Gun control
- Immigration
- Health policy
- Abortion
- Climate Change
- History
- Authoritarianism and Democracy
But there is a road map to right the country: a carefully researched, vigorously tested common story for the country built on the mission set forth for us in the document that first bound our regions together, the Declaration of Independence. Combining compelling storytelling with scholarly vigor, Nations Apart offers a blueprint for bridging the rifts that divide us and ensuring the American dream of democratic self-government will reach its 300th birthday.