A review by adkwriter15
Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood by Colin Woodard

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Perhaps if I had read Woodard's other work, this would have felt more grounded to me, but the voices chosen to highlight at the beginning of the text felt both floating and decontextualized. It takes quite a bit to get off the ground, which feels like a slog, that leads into a much tighter, interesting, and connected back half or third with a rather abrupt end. That being said, I am fascinated with the act of history creation, who writes our history, and what we choose to keep reading, and that is absolutely part of this book's project - along with our sectional differences, although I think it's success at describing that was lesser than. All that aside, I would absolutely be interested in reading Woodard's more famous book, "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America" to see that idea fleshed out more clearly. Once it got going, this was incredibly engaging to listen to.