Have you noticed how many parts of the United States are very different from each other? Cellist Yo Yo Ma observed, “It’s almost like six or eight different countries of very different characters...have been stitched together to form the United States of America.” Alexis de Tocqueville made similar comments in the 1830s.

Using American Nations as our guide, we’ll investigate how these societies, more accurately “nations,” started in Europe, and how they settled here, bringing their own cultural baggage. Later, each group carried its own “nation” west as the country expanded.
Highly educated Puritans populated New England, Dutch traders started New Amsterdam, and Quakers quietly settled Pennsylvania.
With slaves, younger English gentry grew tobacco in Virginia and rice in South Carolina, while Scotch-Irish settled noisily in the Appalachian Mountains. To this day, each “nation” continues to influence our culture. This course should make you view the United States differently than you did before!

There will be reading assignments of approximately 50 pages per week.