
American Character
A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Yen
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By:
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Colin Woodard
About this listen
The struggle between individualism and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run-up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agenda of the Progressives, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party. In American Character, Colin Woodard traces these two key strands in American politics through the four centuries of the nation's existence, from the first colonies through the Gilded Age and Great Depression to the present day, and how different regions of the country have successfully or disastrously accommodated them. The independent streak found its most pernicious form in the antebellum South but was balanced in the Gilded Age by communitarian reform efforts; the New Deal was an example of a successful coalition between communitarian-minded Eastern elites and Southerners.
Throughout the American experience, the goal has always been to find the sweet spot between protecting the individual and nurturing the health of the community, and Woodard's historically informed suggestions for achieving that balance will be of interest to anyone who cares about the current American predicament - political, ideological, and sociological.
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Most Americans believe that slavery was a creature of the South, and that Northern states and territories provided stops on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. In this paradigm-shifting book, celebrated historian Tiya Miles reveals that slavery was at the heart of the Midwest's iconic city: Detroit. In this richly researched and eye-opening book, Miles has pieced together the experience of the unfree - both native and African American - in the frontier outpost of Detroit.
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Great!
- By Melissa Eisner on 05-30-18
By: Tiya Miles
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The Second Founding
- How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
- By: Eric Foner
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar, a timely history of the constitutional changes that built equality into the nation's foundation and how those guarantees have been shaken over time.
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Excellent book - problematic narrator
- By Jennifer on 10-01-19
By: Eric Foner
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Mayflower Lives
- Pilgrims in a New World and the Early American Experience
- By: Martyn Whittock
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Leading into the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower, Martyn Whittock examines the lives of the "saints" (members of the Separatist Puritan congregations) and "strangers" (economic migrants) on the original ship. Collectively, these people would become known to history as "the Pilgrims". The story of the Pilgrims has taken on a life of its own as one of our founding national myths - their escape from religious persecution, the dangerous transatlantic journey, that brutal first winter.
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Wonderful!
- By Dennis on 11-25-20
By: Martyn Whittock
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Power and Liberty
- Constitutionalism in the American Revolution
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism - the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions.
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Provides Context for Todays Mess
- By Tad on 07-20-24
By: Gordon S. Wood
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A Fierce Discontent
- The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920
- By: Michael McGerr
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The Progressive Era witnessed the nation's most convulsive upheaval, a time of radicalism far beyond the Revolution or anything since. In response to the birth of modern America, one small group of middle-class Americans seized control of the nation and attempted to remake society from bottom to top. They accomplished an astonishing range of triumphs, yet the progressive movement collapsed as the war came to an end amid race riots, strikes, high inflation, and a frenzied Red scare.
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A well balanced take
- By Ryan Mooney on 04-17-21
By: Michael McGerr
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Cahokia
- Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi
- By: Timothy Pauketat
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Professor Timothy R. Pauketat illuminates the riveting discovery of the largest pre-Columbian city on U.S. soil. Once a flourishing metropolis of 20,000 people in 1050, Cahokia had rotted away by 1400. Its earthen mounds near modern-day St. Louis reveal “woodhenges” and evidence of large-scale human sacrifice.
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probably better in hard copy
- By Mary on 06-05-11
By: Timothy Pauketat
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Thunder at the Gates
- The Black Civil War Regiments That Redeemed America
- By: Douglas R. Egerton
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the formation and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry - regiments led by whites, but composed of black men born free or into slavery. He argues that the most important battles of all were won on the field of public opinion, for in fighting with distinction, the regiments realized the long-derided idea of full and equal citizenship for blacks.
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Civil War Heroes
- By Jared Wilkinson on 03-10-23
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A Peace to End All Peace
- The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Middle East has long been a region of rival religions, ideologies, nationalisms, and ambitions. All of these conflicts are rooted in the region's political inheritance: the arrangements, unities, and divisions imposed by the Allies after the First World War. Author David Fromkin reveals how and why the Allies drew lines on an empty map that remade the geography and politics of the Middle East. Focusing on the formative years of 1914 to 1922, when all seemed possible, he delivers in this sweeping and magisterial book the definitive account of this defining time.
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Still A Great Book On The Topic
- By Nostromo on 02-03-19
By: David Fromkin
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Crucible of War
- The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766
- By: Fred Anderson
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War - long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution - takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain's empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution. Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration.
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A Detailed History
- By Daniel on 07-15-18
By: Fred Anderson
Mr. Woodward jumps from The Colonies, to Barbados, to the Great War, to the deep south, to Hungary, to genetics, to the KKK, to the great depression, to the Midlands, to whatever pops into his mind -- all within a few pages. His stream of consciousness simply reflects his values rather than a logical analysis of the two philosophical beliefs that permeates our national psyche: individualism and communitarianism.
It’s difficult to discern if he ignores facts which would moderate his opinions, or he simply doesn’t know them. Nevertheless, American Character is an interesting review of American political history with a lot of well researched facts -- some profound some trivial. The facts made it worthwhile to listen to the entire book.
A Disorganized Rant
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Woodard identifies and describes the 11 nations within the US, a summary of which may be as follows:
1 Yankeedom, of Puritan communitarian culture
2 New Netherland, of Dutch commercial culture around New York City
3 The Midlands, a live and let live culture, and a thin region stretching from just outside New Netherland, through central Maryland and into the Midwest and expanding north and south just past the Mississippi River
4 Greater Appalachia, a vast area of coherent culture from southwestern Pennsylvania through central Texas and into New Mexico
5 Tidewater, initially a slave holding region stretching from Delaware through the eastern parts of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina
6 Deep South, the area where settlers from Barbados brought their slave based economy to the Carolina region, which expanded through to Texas and north Florida
7 New France, the area either side of New Orleans whose culture originated from France
8 El Norte, the culture of northern Mexico, which spans the southern part of the US from Texas to California, with a narrower expansion to the north into southern Colorado
9 The Left Coast, a coastal region from southern California to Juneau, Alaska, which was initially influenced by Yankeedom culture
10 The Far West, a vast part of the open country between the Left Coast, El Norte, and The Midlands, which stretches to Fairbanks, Alaska
11 First Nation, in Woodard's map this covers the Native American cultures in the arctic and subarctic regions of Alaska and Canada, and stretching to about the northern latitude of Maine east of The Far West region
Among all the detail that Woodard provides, the impact and experience of immigrants from other parts of the world (such as Asia and the Middle East), and Native Americans are addressed only tangentially if at all—and one people integral to the history and culture of the US, African Americans, are covered only in the context of the relationship some of the other 11 nations have with them. As African Americans and immigrants who've become Americans have interacted with the 11 nations identified by Woodard in several different ways, there is room for one or more additional books to be written to complete the current American story—here's inviting Woodard or anyone else who is competent and qualified to take on that task.
As the nations described by Woodard seem to carry irreconcilable differences, the author offers a strategy for addressing these differences and saving the US from the threat of a descent into autocracy. The strategy involves appealing to the economic concerns of Greater Appalachia to erode the larger than life grip of authoritarian Dixie on the federal and state governments. Enhancing the live and let live culture of The Midlands is also a possibility. It is reasonable to imagine the communitarian supportiveness of Yankeedom combining with the individualism of Greater Appalachia and The Midlands to provide a prosperous society in which all are truly free. Waking the country from the trance of laissez-faire economics and shoring up the New Deal safety net is within the range of possibility. There are ways to counter the billionaire funded propaganda outlets that support populist demagogues. Current efforts to appeal to voters to change their support away from authoritarians are underway already—projects such as More in Common, Vote Common Good, and OpenSecrets (a research group tracking money in US politics) are examples of these efforts—it's time to increase their traction, so that all nations in the US may prosper peacefully.
[Note about the narration: The character inflections in voicing the quotes were fake and distracting. Some historical figures were quoted using either the stereotypical Southern senator or it sounded like Simpsons characters with some quotes sounding like the Comic Book Guy. The project should either do the research on what the historical person actually sounded like, or manage quotes in a different way, such as a separate distinctive narrator style that does not pretend to sound like the actual historical person.]
America's Internal Differences Can Be Managed
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Worthwhile- Repeats Much of "American Nations"
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Maybe just hang it up.
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The practical advice is at the very end of the book - if you only have 20 minutes to spend on this book, listen to that. But hearing the whole context is fun and quite illuminating.
The only reason I gave the narrator 3 stars is the "accents" that pop up when quoting historical/public figures. They're... not great... By this I mean that I cringed a lot, and almost gave up on the book at some point because of it (but I'm glad I didn't). It's a shame, since accents are not necessary in this context, and don't have much to add - there is no dialog that they need to help us keep track of, and the source of the quote is always mentioned anyway. Besides, no one can reasonably be expected to replicate such a wide range of accents anyway - so it's a losing proposition from the outset. (Unless you're Meryl Streep, in which case go for it!)
The narration is quite good otherwise.
useful guide to American history and culture
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Narrator’s fake accents distracting
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Well researched and analyzed
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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
No. I fell in love with Colin Woodward's American Nations. I have listened to it twice and could not stop talking about it. My favorite part of American Nations was how unbiased Colin Woodward was. He was acting as a historian focused on an accurate accounting of history and an explanation of our current culture. I was extremely excited to read this book thinking it was going to read an extension of the groundwork from that book and hear about how these nations compete between the idea of individual liberty and the common good that was unbiased like his other writing. The book starts out this way. When he explained the purpose of the book in the first few chapters it is spot on. Then when the book gets going its starts to lean extremely heavily on a big government "Yankeedom" point of view as the only "right" solution to everything. It takes a tone of anything that does not believe that government is a utopian solution to help the common good is evil. I had trouble finishing this book from about 1900 on. Lastly, he makes it out to seem that certain assumptions he has made a pure fact. I was very disappointed in this book and do not know if I will ever read another one of his after this. I will still promote his American Nations and probably listen to it for the third time soon..Have you listened to any of Jonathan Yen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Yes. Just as good as others. He is great!Did American Character inspire you to do anything?
no.Bias towards "the common good"
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Interesting view on history
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Great content, well researched
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