Book du Jour

American Nations (http://www.colinwoodard.com/americannations.html) was extravagantly recommended to me when I was in Florida over the previous winter. I tried to get my hands on a copy as soon as I returned to DC but wasn't able to do so until very recently. Seems the library's copies were that much in demand. So, being something of a contrarian, the praise for the book mostly made me feel a bit skeptical. It couldn't be that good, could it? Well, maybe it is & maybe it isn't but it's good enough, that's for certain. The book is at it's most authoritative in the early chapters when it is purely a work of North American colonial history. We truly started out not as a nation at all nor even as closely related & supportive settlements. For the most part the original colonies very independent, with little in common, & divergent interests and these differences were not obliterated but only briefly put aside by the growing dispute with the mother country. So, the United States of America was very much a marriage of convenience which has persisted through all of its history explaining much of the nature of our constitution, our geographic spread across the continent & our shifting disputes, wars, enmities & allegiances to the present day. At least that is what the book attempts to describe & in my estimation it does a very creditable job of it. In other words, the author tells us a great deal we hadn't otherwise been taught & answers many questions about how our history has unfolded.

No book is perfect - except religious ones, of course - & what seems to be lacking in this one is hard evidence. Logically it holds together wonderfully well but one wonders if other interpretations might serve equally. There are numerous citations & claims that historical voting records support the stated conclusions. At this point, I have not subjected these claims to critical scrutiny but feel somewhat reassured that the citations exist. Furthermore, the book offers little in the way of solutions to our present state of impass except hypothesizing that if the present course persists the US as we know it cease to exist as presently constituted; that is might be split into constituent parts, that certain regions of the present US, Canada, & even Mexico might form new federations, & that the nation or nations that ensue might resemble the EU in terms of regional independence vs central power. At minimum the book is thought provoking & I in turn recommend it highly.