I've lived in four of these regions (Pocatello, ID; Charlotte, NC; New Orleans; and NW Arkansas). I don't know that I'd call New Orleans Cajun, but otherwise this fits pretty well.
When I was in NY, Upstate was basically White Plains and the other suburbs that took the train into the city for work, maybe about an hour north of NYC.
Further up than that is the North Country, much more rural than the bottom of NY. Nobody called that region "Upstate".
This concept was published in a book entitled "The Nine Nations of North America" (Joel Garreau) in the late '70s. The various areas seem to have similar shapes, comparing to the map above. The only serious difference is in the concept of "MexAmerica", the area still being the home of the many peoples descended from the home of the inhabitants from the time before the US was so much as a concept. Has Republicanisation of discourse managed to throw away those people descended from those "others" who still dare to exist? Or has the "white flight" of senior citizens submerged the original inhabitants?
The Nine Nations idea was taken and expanded upon in a book I can't praise enough: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard. I've studied American history forever but this book let me view it through an entirely different lens and explained why we will never really be "United" states.
interesting that quite a few of those are bounded by geographic features.
ReplyDeleteI-)
I've lived in four of these regions (Pocatello, ID; Charlotte, NC; New Orleans; and NW Arkansas). I don't know that I'd call New Orleans Cajun, but otherwise this fits pretty well.
ReplyDeleteI've never called the NW corner 'Cascadia' and don't know that I've ever heard that term for that region. to me, it's the Pacific Northwest.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(bioregion)
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)
When I was in NY, Upstate was basically White Plains and the other suburbs that took the train into the city for work, maybe about an hour north of NYC.
ReplyDeleteFurther up than that is the North Country, much more rural than the bottom of NY. Nobody called that region "Upstate".
Yes, I lived in the North Country for 10 years. Everything else was "downstate" to us.
DeleteThe depiction of Texas is reasonably accurate, although urban areas create outliers.
ReplyDeleteThis concept was published in a book entitled "The Nine Nations of North America" (Joel Garreau) in the late '70s. The various areas seem to have similar shapes, comparing to the map above. The only serious difference is in the concept of "MexAmerica", the area still being the home of the many peoples descended from the home of the inhabitants from the time before the US was so much as a concept. Has Republicanisation of discourse managed to throw away those people descended from those "others" who still dare to exist? Or has the "white flight" of senior citizens submerged the original inhabitants?
ReplyDeleteThe Nine Nations idea was taken and expanded upon in a book I can't praise enough: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard. I've studied American history forever but this book let me view it through an entirely different lens and explained why we will never really be "United" states.
ReplyDelete