Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America

by Colin Woodard

Overview

“A world-class intellectual. . . . [Colin Woodard’s] research can help Americans rediscover their common identity in spite of all the attempts to divide them.” —Garry Kasparov

The bestselling author of American Nations reveals how centuries-old regional differences have brought American democracy to the brink of collapse and presents a powerful story that can bridge our cultural divisions and save the republic

Our democracy has been purposefully dismantled, first in the states and now at the federal level. With groundbreaking original data and historical insights, Nations Apart is an essential guide to understanding why Americans are so divided on many hot button issues, creating geographic fissures that have been exploited by authoritarians. Colin Woodard shows how colonial era settlement patterns and the cultural geography they left behind are at the root of our political polarization, economic inequality, public health crises, and democratic collapse.

Drawing on quantitative research from Woodard’s university-based think tank project, Nations Apart exposes the true ideological and cultural divides behind today’s struggles over:

* Gun control
* Immigration
* Health policy
* Abortion
* Climate Change
* History
* Authoritarianism and Democracy

But there is a road map to right the country: a carefully researched, vigorously tested common story for the country built on the mission set forth for us in the document that first bound our regions together, the Declaration of Independence. Combining compelling storytelling with scholarly vigor, Nations Apart offers a blueprint for bridging the rifts that divide us and ensuring the American dream of democratic self-government will reach its 300th birthday.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593833407
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/04/2025
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Colin Woodard, a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist, is director of Nationhood Lab Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. A longtime foreign correspondent, he reported from more than 50 countries on seven continents and, as an investigative reporter at Maine’s Portland Press Herald, won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian, and dozens of other major publications. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he lives in Maine.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Nations Apart:

“A world-class intellectual. . . . [Colin Woodard’s] research can help Americans rediscover their common identity in spite of all the attempts to divide them.”
—Garry Kasparov

Praise for Union:

Named a Book of the Year by the Christian Science Monitor

"In Woodard’s hands, [history] leaps to life. He shows just how powerful a form popular nonfiction can be in the hands of a disciplined writer who won’t tolerate generality or abstraction. . . . The writing is relentlessly accessible. . . . This is that rare history that tells what influential thinkers failed to think, what famous writers left unwritten."
—Jill Leovy, The American Scholar

Praise for American Character:

Chautauqua Book Prize finalist• Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction

"[Woodard] is a terrific writer, and his range is impressive."
—David Oshinsky, Washington Post

Praise for American Nations:

A Wall Street Journal bestseller• A New Republic Best Book of the Year• The Globalist Top Books of the Year• Winner of the Maine Literary Award for Non-fiction

“Fascinating . . . Engrossing . . . a smart read that feels particularly timely now, when so many would claim a mythically unified ‘founding Fathers’ as their political ancestors.”
—The Boston Globe

From the Publisher