The Yankee Way

The Blueprint That Created America

By: Troy Tyson

Narrated by: Dan McDermott

How did America become great? How did this country become the most successful, powerful, and prosperous nation in the history of the world? Was it because of the nation’s unprecedented founding documents? Was it due to the scores of immigrants from all over the world who brought their dreams and talents to America’s shores? Or did America become great, as some contend, through racism, theft, and genocide?

Author Troy Tyson proposes a unique argument as to the origins of American greatness: that the country’s unparalleled success is a result not of its founding documents, nor its celebrated openness to people of all backgrounds, nor of genocidal tyranny. Rather, The Yankee Way asserts that the nation’s great power and success stem primarily from the traits of a comparatively small, peculiar ethnic group from New England known as the Yankees. These traits, which include morality, industriousness, respect for law and order, commitment to education, and dedication to traditional family values, were developed first by the early Puritans of New England, then passed down to their Yankee descendants, who finally embedded them into the cultural DNA of the US.

The Yankee Way explores, in fascinating detail, the history of the Yankees and the process by which they created modern America and instilled within it their distinct cultural characteristics. Further, though, the audiobook serves as a warning to Americans as to what the future might hold as the nation rapidly moves away from this critical cultural inheritance and leaves the Yankee way behind.

©2018 Troy P. Tyson (P)2018 Troy P. Tyson

Interesting, but not convincing

_The Yankee Way_ presents a history of Yankee culture, by which it means the culture that began with the Pilgrims of Massachusetts, and dominated New England for over three centuries. Author Troy Tyson makes the argument that the soul and success of America is rooted in the hard-working Calvinist exemplar ethos of New England, that city set on a hill and it's inhabitants dedicated to showing the world the right way to live as a society.

I still want to read this book in print, so as to retain more of a memory of its contents (as always happens when I read rather than listen to a book), but after listening to it twice I still come away with the sensation that it's a nice story, but it lacks a solidly persuasive core. Maybe as an white American myself born and raised in a culture heavily influenced by these Yankees, I am in some ways too close to this ethnic group to see it as fully separate from just how folks are. In other ways, I find arguments about people guided into unique greatness as an ethnic group and the backbone of a nation by Christian principles a little too idealistic a description of the nature of humans and of Christians.

I would like to follow the Yankee admonition generally to work hard for the public good, but some of the details of that admonition smack of cultural conformity and/or ethnic superiority -- the White Man's Burden doctrine, perhaps. I'm empathetic to the goal of soothing our cultural divide in this country and finding a new unity around the best of our national traditions, such as endeavoring to treat all men as if they were created equal and only differentiate themselves under the law by their own choices since; by pursuing the ideal of liberty and justice for all; and by sewing warm bonds of social connection between all Americans to unite us into a more perfect union. While I sympathize with the Yankee spirit in many of its diverse facets and have gained a greater appreciation for its influences on the American way of life, I'm not convinced that the Yankee Way is the very spine of the Republic as it is depicted in this book.

Certainly the author is correct that our society is remaking itself in these unique days, and Yankee tradition deserves its share of the influencial weight in that reform, but I'm not convinced Yankee culture must needs be as fundamental and central to that new Americana as it is herein advocated.

Still, thank you for the food for thought.

Timely and Fascinating

This was an extremely fascinating story - better yet that it is real history told in an incredibly engaging way. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book and found myself almost late for meetings because I kept sitting in the car to listen for five more minutes!