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

Woodard, the author of the book, is a journalist and historian. He has written for the Christian Science Monitor, the Economist, and other publications. He lives in Portland, Maine, in the heart of Yankeedom, and he writes with a sense of superiority about the Yankees. His descriptions of different regional cultures, such as that of the Deep South, tend toward the negative, and it is apparent that Woodard believes the culture of the Dixie bloc is flawed. For example, he describes the culture of the Deep South as committed to a “caste system.” He also refers to the southern system as “apartheid,” which is a term generally reserved to describe the legal system of racial segregation that formerly existed in South Africa.