424 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

the distance —show impoverished out of his pictures. He focused on children. Some eight percent of his locally owned businesses instead of project shows African Americans, a chain department and grocery stores, considerably higher figure than their and he generally ignored “movies, ratio in the national population and mass media and consumer culture” in the FSA collection. His indignation (p. 179) . flashes most brightly in a picture of a Raeburn lauds the multivalence circus billboard replete with per - of Shahn’s project, which contrasts formers in blackface and in a sign at democratic values with racism, and a Lancaster restaurant , reading “We balances seemingly vibrant down - Cater to White Trade Only.” towns with dole lines and shanty Despite his recognition of moder - towns. “Shahn’s reception to ambi - nity’s encroachment, Shahn pointed guity—his portrayal of small-town his camera away from its overt signs. culture as made up of a complex Raeburn draws on supporting docu - admixture of divergent tendencies— ments , including the WPA Federal is his survey’s most distinguishing Writers’ Project’s The Ohio Guide hallmark,” he concludes (p. 179) . (1940) , Robert and Helen Lynd’s pio - neering sociological study Middle - CLAUDE COOKMAN is Associate Pro - town (1929), and his own visits to fessor in the School of Journalism at the sites to disclose what Shahn left Indiana University.

American Nations A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America By Colin Woodard (New York: Viking, 2011. Pp. xii, 371. Illustrations, notes, index. $30. 00.)

Americans pledge that they are “one not correspond to U.S. state bound - nation under God, indivisible.” In aries, and six of the ten cross inter - reality, Colin Woodard argues, the national borders into Canada or United States is a federation of ten Mexico. The eleventh nation of nations—the Deep South, Greater Woodard’s title, First Nation, is Appalachia, the Left Coast, the Mid - located entirely within Canada. lands, New France, New Nether - Woodard explains his unconven - land, El Norte, Tidewater, the Far tional designations as the result of West, and Yankeedom —highly a study of patterns of European divisible, with highly varying views colonial settlement, migration with - of God. These nations ’ territories do in the continent, and conquest. REVIEWS 425

The first part of American ferences among the nations. Woodard Nations provides a conventional sum - believes it significant, for example, mary of the colonial origins of the that the country’s two most contro - United States’s ten nations. Their versial wars—Vietnam and Iraq— founders came from different parts of were waged by presidents from the Britain and continental Europe, “warrior” nation of Greater migrated to America for different rea - Appalachia. sons, and brought with them differ - Woodard paints the eleven ent cultural values and religious nations with a broad brush. Although traditions. In the second part, heavily footnoted, his generalizations Woodard points out the varying atti - cross the line into unflattering stereo - tudes found within these regions types. Yankees settled a “moralistic towards the Revolution and the desir - nation of churches and schoolhous - ability of an independent United es…[where] there was no such thing States. Far from unifying the nations, as minding one’s own business” (p. Woodard describes the Constitution 57). Deep Southerners were “milita - as an “uneasy alliance” and “messy rized, caste-structured, and deferen - compromise” among the rival nations tial to authority” (p. 90). Midlanders (pp. 148- 49). “quarreled with one another over A third section, Woodard’s most doctrinal questions while government innovative, covers most of the nine - fell into disarray” (p. 97), while teenth century. Rather than a battle Appalachians built a “clan-based war - between “North” and “South,” rior culture” (p. 101). Woodard sees the Civil War as a con - The author’s treatment of Indi - flict between two coalitions of nations ana is typical. Woodard classifies the (p. 224). Woodard calls the Confed - southern three-fourths of Indiana as erate attack on Fort Sumter in April part of Greater Appalachia. He states 1861 “one of the worst miscalculations flatly that “Hoosier” was a slang term in North American history” (p. 231). for “frontier hick,” adopted by Indi - Until the attack, Woodard argues, a ana’s Appalachians as a badge of majority of the nations, for a variety of honor (pp. 184, 190). So much for reasons, were inclined to let the Deep two centuries of debate over the ety - South secede peacefully. After the Bat - mology of “Hoosier.” Woodard allo - tle of Fort Sumter, most of the other cates Indiana’s four northern tiers of nations were provoked to defend the counties mostly to the Midlands, Union from a military attack. though his sole discussion of Midland The fourth part is the book’s Indiana concerns the large Quaker weakest. In it, Woodard tries to tie population of Richmond, which his contemporary American conflicts maps place well into Greater over cultural change and overseas Appalachia. Yankees are confined to military engagements to historical dif - northwestern Indiana’s four counties 426 INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

because as they migrated west they al politics and global culture may “skipped over the marshlands of Indi - tamp down the distinctiveness of ana” (p. 178). nations but cannot and will not Woodard concludes that the bal - destroy them . ance of power in future cultural and political struggles among nations will JAMES M. R UBENSTEIN is Professor of be held by the two regions receiving Geography at Miami University in the least attention in the book—El Oxford, Ohio. He is the author or co- Norte (in the United States) and First author of eight books on human Nation (in Canada). Setting aside the geography, the auto industry, and city amusement or outrage over planning. He received his AB from the Woodard’s stereotypes of nations, his University of Chicago, MSc from the fundamental point is sound. The London School of Economics, and American continent has always been PhD from the Johns Hopkins dominated by tensions between local University. values and national purpose. Nation -