The Midlands of the "American Nations" in the Texas Panhandle (San Antonio: 2013)

[Walter Benjamin]

The idea that the U.S. can be divided up into different regions of cultural geography is interesting, and there is one particular theory put forward by Colin Woodard in the book "American Nations" which is widely discussed.

Here are a few of the many articles where he discussed his theory, all of which have the same map attached.

* https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/o...-midterms.html
* https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...o-you-live-in/
* Tufts Magazine / fall 2013
* https://medium.com/s/balkanized-amer...a-f283d4c58483



But aside from the larger theory, I wanted to ask a specific question, which is that his map appears to show the ten northern most counties in the Texas Panhandle are part of the "Midlands" region or nation, whereas a large part of the state south of there is in "Greater Appalachia."

So if I read the map correctly, Dallam, Sherman, Hansford, Ochiltree, Lipscomb, Hartley, Moore, Hutchinson, Roberts, and Hemphill counties, including the towns of Dumas and Borger, would all be in the "Midlands," about 80,000 people in total, whereas the next counties south would be in "Greater Appalachia."

Is this an accurate division? Is there really a cultural difference between the "nations" of these different parts of the Panhandle? Just curious...

[supfromthesite]

I think there is a culture difference, but that is changing a lot, with tv being such a big deal there is not much of a unique culture in America for a lot of kids. Even older people in some areas.

I find that my ancestors from Tennessee and Arkansas settled more in the hill country or elsewhere in central Texascwhile my Deep South ancestors settled South of San Antonio and East. There is certainly a lot of truth to that map.

[stanwood]

I don't know if it's accurate or not but it is definitely interesting data.

The real question is if you ate at the Dairy Queen?

[Westerner92]

I can agree with the premise of his work in that the US operates more like a system of semi-cooperating English speaking cultures/nationalities, but his actual divisions are terrible.

Here's a map a reddit user made that I like a lot. It's not perfect, but it approaches the same concept with a lot more finesse. It uses all natural boundaries, and as a result, captures more political, historical, and cultural nuance. I'm a Lubbock native with much of my family living in the north and east Texas Panhandle, and I can agree with how this map divides the cultures.