The Nine Nations of North America
essay by Joel Garreau
The Nine Nations of North America is a 1981 book by Joel Garreau, in which the author suggests that North America can be divided into nine nations, which have distinctive economic and cultural features. He also argues that conventional national and state borders are largely artificial and irrelevant, and that his "nations" provide a more accurate way of understanding the true nature of North American society. The work has been called "a classic text on the current regionalization of North America".
The nine nations
New England – an expanded version including not only Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut (although omitting the southwestern portion of Connecticut within the New York metropolitan area), but also the Canadian Atlantic provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Capital: Boston.
The Foundry – the by-then-declining industrial areas of the northeastern United States and Great Lakes region stretching from New York City to northeast Wisconsin and down to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in Northern Virginia, and including Chicago, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, Philadelphia, and Southern Ontario. Capital: Detroit.
Dixie – the former Confederate States of America (today the southeastern United States) centered on Atlanta, and including most of eastern Texas. While northern Virginia and most of Maryland are culturally not part of Dixie, he includes most of Virginia and West Virginia in "Dixie" as well as Kentucky; southern and southeastern portions of Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana; and the "Little Dixie" region of southeastern Oklahoma. Finally, the region also includes most of Florida, as far south as the cities of Fort Myers and Naples.
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