American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

American Nations postulates the history of the United States as explained by a group of 11 rival nations. Each nation has its distinct characteristics and origin.

The "Deep South" was started by immigrants from the Barbados who brought the slave culture. They tended to be people that liked to look down on others with a strong hierarchy. Tidewater was a more conservative nobelist culture. These were people that considered themselves elite. They had indentured servants and later adopted slavery. Appalachia was the much more independent group of "southerners". They occupied the most hostile territory. They wanted to be independent and left alone. These groups had very different outlooks, but become more aligned during the reconstruction era. 

El Norte is the region around the US/Mexican border. They are more aligned with their own region than with the US or Mexico. New France is another enclave of French, primarily in Quebec and Louisiana. New Netherlands was originally in the New York area. Despite the short Dutch occupation, the Dutch cultural values remain today. Yankeedom was dominated by Puritans, while the Midlands had Quaker influence. The First Nations were the people already on the continent before the Europeans. Finally there were the Far West and Left Coast which were primarily populated by other groups.

These different groups have spread out to other parts of the country. Populations have been moving about to other parts of the country. Many of the conflicts in the country can be traced to different worldviews among the different groups. The alliances among groups also shift, with groups aligning on different issues at idfferent times. 

Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood

Union is a book about slavery in the civil war, without focussing on slavery. The focus is instead on a few key "influencers" of the time. 

William Gilmore Simms was a popular southern novelist before the Civil War. He was very pro-slavery and pro-South Carolina. He was later "cancelled" because of these views.

George Bancroft was a historian that originated many of the "myths" we have of the early history of our country. He later served in the national government. He did not think much of Lincoln when he first met him.

Frederick Douglas was born into slavery, but learned to read. He became famous on the abolitionist circuit. He at times was stuck "doing the will" of others, but did manage to be "independent" and focus on his core ideals. He was even appointed to US government offices.

Woodrow Wilson is treated the most negatively. He was a southerner, and was often a traitor to the cause of the blacks that supported him. He led to Jim-Crowification of the national government. His League of Nations failed to be achieve its desired results in part because of the reluctance to treat all races as evil. His scholarship is criticised as being lazy and unoriginal. 

Frederick Jackson Turner supported the "frontier thesis". The frontier helped to mold the common American identity. The challenges involved helped to unify a diverse population. Alas, this could also explain the disunity. Without a western frontier, there is not the strong unifying force that had previously existed.

Thomas Dixon, Jr. wrote a novel glorifying the KKK. The organization had briefly lived after the Civil War. But had pretty much become extinct. D.W. Griffith would buy the book to make a movie, Birth of a Nation. The film was very controversial at the time. It glorified the south and the Klan. Southerners would use this as an example for the resurrection of the clan. The movie was one of the first "full length" motion pictures and had extremely high production values. 

There were various infighting at the time. Many states still had allegiance to their state first and foremost. (Somewhat similar to the EU of today.) There were desires to expand the US into all of North America. There were organizations advocating voting rights for all races as well as for women, with conflicts among the groups. The northerners wanted to "force" the south to do integrate, but that would require a wholesale change in the culture. With a wholesale change, some resorted to mob violence. There were also many northerners who behaved badly in trying to get the south to behave. 

Republic of Pirates

The original pirates of the Caribbean were the early new world democratic revolutionaries. They threw off the chains of repression and gave each man an equal say and his destiny. They achieved this destiny primarily by looting and plundering, but hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

The big pirates often started out with fairly normal "careers" before drifting into piracy. Some were originally privateers and then decided they could do even better without the official sanction. Others still held to some nominal allegiance to their comrades and the rule of law. Others were just in it for fun. What they all generally discovered was that you can appeal to a man's greed. By promising each man a significant share of the wealth and saw in the ship's activities, they were able to recruit and maintain a dedicated workforce. (They also resorted to conscription when they needed it.)

The Bahamas were once the headquarters of pirate activity. The rule of law was largely ignored and the pirates had their saw. The man that came in and finally cleaned up the Bahamas ended up living in poverty due to his efforts to support the "honest" population.

Alas, while the pirates achieved notoriety, they rarely got to enjoy their riches, often dying at the sword or gallows. At least they went out in flames.

Republic of Pirates attempts to bring this early pirate era alive by focusing on a few main characters (such as Blackbeard.) The story is a little more than a biography, but a little less than a history. I would have liked to have a little more of both.