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

by Colin Woodard

Overview

The author of American Nations examines the history of and solutions to the key American question: how best to reconcile individual liberty with the maintenance of a free society

The struggle between individual rights and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of nearly 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 agendas of the Federalists, the Progressives, the New Dealers, 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, Great Depression and the present day, and he explores 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.

Woodard argues that maintaining a liberal democracy, a society where mass human freedom is possible, requires finding a balance between protecting individual liberty and nurturing a free society. Going to either libertarian or collectivist extremes results in tyranny. But where does the “sweet spot” lie in the United States, a federation of disparate regional cultures that have always strongly disagreed on these issues? Woodard leads readers on a riveting and revealing journey through four centuries of struggle, experimentation, successes and failures to provide an answer. His historically informed and pragmatic suggestions on how to achieve this balance and break the nation’s political deadlock will be of interest to anyone who cares about the current American predicament—political, ideological, and sociological.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143110002
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	261,438
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Colin Woodard, an award-winning writer and journalist, is currently the state and national affairs writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram and received a 2012 George Polk Award for an investigative project he did for those papers. A longtime foreign correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, he has reported from more than fifty foreign countries and six continents. His work has appeared in dozens of publications, including The Economist, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, Politico, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Bloomberg View, and Washington Monthly. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, he is the author of four previous books including American Nations and The Republic of Pirates.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Maintaining Freedom 1

Chapter 2 Two Paths to Tyranny 25

Chapter 3 The Rival Americas 57

Chapter 4 The Elite and the Masses (1607-1876) 85

Chapter 5 The Rise and Fall of Laissez-Faire (1877-1930) 111

Chapter 6 The Rise and Fall of National Liberalism (1933-1967) 147

Chapter 7 Dixie Takes Over (1968-2008) 183

Chapter 8 Rise of the Radicals (2008-) 223

Chapter 9 A Lasting Union 243

Acknowledgments and Suggested Reading 267

Notes 273

Index 294

Editorial Reviews

Woodard, an award-winning journalist for the Portland Press-Herald in Maine, is a terrific writer, and his range is impressive. His musings about the impact of Ayn Rand on American conservatism or a day spent in the terrifying blackness of Nicolae Ceausescu's crumbling Romanian dictatorship are elegant set pieces.”
—David Oshinsky, Washington Post

“An illuminating national portrait at a particularly divisive time.”
—Downeast

“Woodard’s treatise is a must-read for anyone grappling with how we arrived at the present moment . . . Although the prose is effortlessly accessible to a general audience, the manuscript could easily serve as a textbook in a number of different disciplines: history, economics, political science and psychology, just to name a few.”
—Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News

“A deep analysis of the history of the common good versus individual rights. . . . A healthy democracy needs to balance the two; either one alone leads to disaster. . . . American Character adds a further prism to the public-private spectrum. ‘The struggle for freedom is not bilateral, but instead triangular,’ Woodard writes. ‘The participants are the state, the people, and the would-be aristocracy or oligarchy. Liberal democracy . . . relies on keeping these three forces in balance.’ The history of that struggle is a big-dipper ride through four centuries as first collectivists then individualists take their turn at managing the country. Lurking just below the surface are always mirrors reflecting our own times. . . . Woodard’s essential thesis is vital to understand.”
—Thomas Urquhart, Portland Press-Herald
 
“Woodard builds on his previous analysis of the country’s regional differences to focus on the conflict between individualism and collectivism that defines our national character. As in his previous book, the author . . . maintains, ‘our country has never been united, either in purpose, principles, or political behavior. We’ve never been a nation-state in the European sense, but rather a federation of nations’ like the European Union. . . . Although we have inherited a legacy of revolution against a king, making us ‘vigilant against the rise of an overarching government that might deny us our individual potential,’ Woodard sees that the vast majority of Americans believe that the ‘American Way’ means ‘pursuing happiness through a free and fair competition between individuals.’ Politicians must reassure voters that fairness is ‘the central issue of our political discourse’ by proposing tax reforms and investments in education that ‘would help keep the playing field even.’ . . . Thoughtful political theory for divisive times.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Praise for American Nations

“[American Nations] sets itself apart by delving deep into history to trace our current divides to ethno-cultural differences that emerged during the country's earliest settlement.”
—The New Republic (Editors’ Picks: Best Books of 2011)
 
“[A] compelling and informative attempt to make sense of the regional divides in North America in general and this country in particular . . . Woodard provides a bracing corrective to an accepted national narrative that too often overlooks regional variations to tell a simpler and more reassuring story.”
—The Washington Post
 
“Mr. Woodard’s approach is breezier than [David Hackett] Fischer’s and more historical than [Joel] Garreau’s, but he has earned a place on the shelf between them.”
—The Wall Street Journal
 
“A smart read that feels particularly timely now, when so many would claim a mythically unified Founding Fathers as their political ancestors.”
—Boston Globe
 
“[In] offering us a way to better understand the forces at play in the rumpus room of current American politics, Colin Woodard has scored a true triumph.”
—Newsweek/The Daily Beast
 
“Woodard makes a worthwhile contribution by offering an accessible, well-researched analysis with appeal to both casual and scholarly readers.”
—Library Journal
 
“For people interested in American history and sociology, American Nations demands reading.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
 
“[A] fascinating new take on our history. . . ”
—The Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

04/11/2016
Journalist Woodard starts more strongly than he finishes in this engaging study of the history of the waxing and waning of American political philosophies. He opens with a trenchant review of how the Pilgrims "have been made pawns in a rhetorical struggle between champions of individualism and those of the common good," a clash he persuasively deems "elemental to the American experience." Linking this volume with his earlier book American Nations, Woodard expands on that volume's division of the country into 11 rival regional cultures (e.g. Yankeedom, Deep South, the Far West, the Left Coast), by analyzing shifts in views of the role of government, starting with England's American colonies in 1607, and continuing to the present. He makes no secret of his own political biases (accusing George W. Bush of presiding over "the most craven diversion of public resources to the rich and powerful in the nation's history"), which could limit his audience. But the book's larger failing is in its prescription for progress, a "political movement championing the fairness doctrine," which as described here seems indistinguishable from traditional moderate liberalism. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Narrator Jonathan Yen’s deep, friendly voice makes this discussion of our nation’s values both accessible and lively. One of the main fault lines that runs through American life is the one that separates individualism from the notion of the common good. Woodard’s audiobook explores this separation from the dawn of the United States in 1776 through the present day, focusing on how we’ve alternated between eras when the individual was king, such as the mid-eighteenth century, to eras when social change required that the American community be viewed as more important. Yen varies his tone, creates characters, and reads at an energetic pace that keeps the book moving. He also pauses to let us process the information and seems to be enjoying narrating the book for listeners. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2016 - AudioFile

2016-01-05
Longtime national affairs writer Woodard (American Nation: A History of Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, 2011, etc.) builds on his previous analysis of the country's regional differences to focus on the conflict between individualism and collectivism that defines our national character. As in his previous book, the author, currently the state and national affairs writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, maintains, "our country has never been united, either in purpose, principles, or political behavior. We've never been a nation-state in the European sense, but rather a federation of nations" like the European Union. Each region has distinct characteristics: Yankeedom, for example, which spread outward from its Puritan origins in Massachusetts, holds that "collective institutions" ensuring the common good take precedence over individual freedom. Conversely, Tidewater (Virginia, Maryland, southern Delaware, and northeastern North Carolina) historically has been "a country gentleman's paradise…fundamentally conservative, with a high value placed on respect for authority and tradition, and very little on equality or public participation in politics." Other regions include Greater Appalachia, Deep South, Midlands, Left Coast, and Far West, each championing individualism or collectivism based on its history. After the historical overview, the author posits some recommendations for present-day political parties. Although we have inherited a legacy of revolution against a king, making us "vigilant against the rise of an overarching government that might deny us our individual potential," Woodard sees that the vast majority of Americans believe that the "American Way" means "pursuing happiness through a free and fair competition between individuals." Politicians must reassure voters that fairness is "the central issue of our political discourse" by proposing tax reforms and investments in education that "would help keep the playing field even." Woodard thinks Democrats are more likely than Republicans to embrace such proposals and therefore to "capture a reliable majority" in the majority of the disparate regions. Thoughtful political theory for divisive times.

Kirkus Reviews