NYC aka New Netherland: Mapping the 11 Different Cultural ‘Nations’ Within the U.S.
Map via Colin Woodward and Tufts/Brian Stauffer
Those of us who live in the tri-state area tend to get accused of thinking the country is made up of the northeast, the west coast, and maybe Florida, and then forgetting about the entire rest of the country. A new map that is part funny, part culturally realistic takes a look at the “11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the U.S.,” according to Business Insider. The spot-on map comes from award-winning author and journalist Colin Woodward‘s newest book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America.
In Woodward’s map, New York City and northern New Jersey is renamed New Netherland, as it was settled by the Dutch and is a very commercial area. The author describes this nation as “materialistic, with a profound tolerance for ethnic and religious diversity and an unflinching commitment to the freedom of inquiry and conscience.”
The entire northeast north of New York City, spreading west to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, is known as Yankeedom. Settled by calvinists, this nation “values education, intellectual achievement, communal empowerment, citizen participation in government as a shield against tyranny,” and they have a “Utopian streak.” South of Northern New Jersey is the Midlands, encompassing parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska. This area was settled by English Quakers and is “a welcoming middle-class society that spawned the culture of the ‘American Heartland.’ Political opinion is moderate, and government regulation is frowned upon.”
See the descriptions for the rest of country’s “nations” over on Business Insider.
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