American Character

A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good

By: Colin Woodard

Narrated by: Jonathan Yen

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.

©2016 Original Material © 2016 by Colin Woodard. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

A Disorganized Rant

American Character started off well with the Mayflower Compact, but quickly disintegrated -- hopping from one geographical place to another and from one era to another without transition or cohesion.

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.

America's Internal Differences Can Be Managed

This is required reading for anyone who wants to understand US history, as well as current day cultural and political conflicts. In this book, Colin Woodard provides anthropological ground truth recognizable by most anyone who's grown up in America, and who will discover it's been hiding in plain sight. Calling these groupings "nations" might seem extreme to some, until the full history and background is laid out—at which point the behavior of politicians and other public figures becomes easier to explain.

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.]

Worthwhile- Repeats Much of "American Nations"

If you are familiar with Woodard ' s "American Nations" then you will find much of this book familiar as well. I believe it stands on its own and does extend to a more candid presentation by the author as to how American Nations have contributed to contemporary affairs and the continuing corrosive effect of Deep South values in the American Experience.

Maybe just hang it up.

I feel like he didn't quite have enough material for an entire second book. Also, the support for his conclusion that he had deduced the character of our geographical nation is a little weak, especially as it nearly violates the core idea of 11 nationa

useful guide to American history and culture

I hope Democrats will read this book before we all die in a fiery inferno.
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.

Narrator’s fake accents distracting

Did you know that the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville spoke with the same voice of Speedy Gonzales? This and further unfortunate surprises await the listener, courtesy the narrator Jonathan Yen as part of an otherwise excellent reading. The contents of the book are great.

Well researched and analyzed

Mr Woodard once again puts well researched information together into an informative, well analyzed explanation of where we (the USA people) are, how we got here, and where we might go and by what means.

Bias towards "the common good"

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.

Interesting view on history

I really enjoyed the book and the narrator. Woodard takes some interesting viewpoints on American events and I would actually like to buy the book so I can notate the things that I want to look up.

Great content, well researched

But DON’T attempt to do accents!! It’s just distracting. Otherwise very thought provoking and hopeful