Nationhood Lab Director Colin Woodard, a historian of the U.S. regionalism and nationhood development, recently discussed with the Associated Press how some of our most powerful national myths contribute… Read more »
Articles Tagged: US History
U.S. nationhood was created nearly from scratch in the 19th century. Was Daniel Webster responsible?
The early United States, scholars have noted, was a country in search of nationhood. Created as an ad hoc military alliance of disparate colonies to fight off a shared political… Read more »
Speaking on American Nations, Boothbay Harbor, Maine; Aug. 22 (Private)
On August 22nd I’ll be giving a talk on North America regionalism and how it’s shaped our past, present, and future — this the topic of my book, American Nations: A History… Read more »
Speaking on Mending America – community and civil society, Washington, D.C.
I will be joining a panel on community and civil society’s role in mending America at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute’s Center on Opportunity and Social Mobility… Read more »
Nationhood Lab website and data journalism initiative launches
The website for my new think tank project at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, Nationhood Lab, went live last week with fresh American Nations-powered analysis of… Read more »
How Frederick Jackson Turner lost faith in his famous Frontier Thesis
Until a few years ago I didn’t know much about Frederick Jackson Turner beyond his having authored the “Frontier Thesis,” which convinced at least four generations of Americans that their… Read more »
Speaking on the American condition, past at present, at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. (Private)
I’ll be joining France’s Ambassador to the U.S., Phillipe Etienne, to speak about the backstory to the present American condition and other relevant political and historical phenomena at the Embassy… Read more »
Launching Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center
I’m pleased to announce that I‘ve launched a think tank project built on the intellectual foundations of the American Nations trilogy and aiming to help save the U.S. republic and… Read more »
Was there any historic truth to Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean films?
Dan Lefebrve has a popular podcast — Based on a True Story — in which he asks an expert how well a given Hollywood film matched up to historical reality…. Read more »
Speaking on the battle to define America’s purpose via Maine Public radio
The United States stands on the brink of a collapse into authoritarianism and dissolution. If we’re to fight back, what are we fighting for? What holds us together? That’s a… Read more »
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.