8: Roots of American National Culture

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Nolan Weil
Utah State University via Rebus Community

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This chapter is a crash course in American history from the perspective of social history and cultural geography. If you can grasp the argument of this chapter, you might begin to see American culture in a completely new light.

Name from memory as many as you can of the American beliefs and values discussed at the beginning of the chapter.
What does Woodard mean when he says there are 11 nations in North America? (What is a nation?)
Besides the English, which three other European powers established a major presence in North America?
What makes New York the unique city that it is?
To which colonies does Albion’s Seed refer? From where did these colonists come exactly? How was the understanding of “freedom” different in each of those colonies?
From where did the founders of the Deep South come?
What happened during the Westward Expansion?