Award-winning journalist to discuss identities of American Nations

Journalist and historian Colin Woodard doesn’t see states when he looks at a map of North America — he sees a collection of 11 different regional cultures that have their own distinct identities and distinguishing ideals. Woodard will present his concept of “American Nations” as a guest of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University on January 23. 

Colin Woodard

“American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America”

January 23  7 p.m. 

Loosemore Auditorium

Pew Grand Rapids Campus, 401 W. Fulton St.

Woodard will discuss the history of the continent through a revolutionary take on American identities, and explain how the conflicts between them have shaped the past and will mold the future. From ‘Yankeedom’ to the ‘Deep South,’ Woodard will reveal how each region continues to uphold its own unique properties and distinguishing attitudes.

Woodard is an award-winning journalist who has reported from more than 50 foreign countries and six continents. He is the state and national affairs writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He won a 2012 George Polk Award for Education Reporting, and was finalist for a 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.

His 2007 book, The Republic of Pirates, is being transformed into the upcoming NBC television drama, Crossbones, starring John Malkovich. The Republic of Pirates is set during the golden age of piracy and centers on the pirate Blackbeard.

His fourth book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, won the 2012 Maine Literary Award for Non-Fiction and was named one of the best books of 2011 by The New Republic and The Globalist.

For more information, visit HauensteinCenter.org