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“A world-class intellectual. . . . [Colin Woodard’s] research can help Americans rediscover their common identity in spite of all the attempts to divide them.”
– Garry Kasparov


Our democracy has been purposefully dismantled, first in the states and now at the federal level. With groundbreaking original data and historical insights, Nations Apart is an essential guide to understanding why Americans are so divided on many hot button issues, creating geographic fissures that have been exploited by authoritarians. Colin Woodard shows how colonial era settlement patterns and the cultural geography they left behind are at the root of our political polarization, economic inequality, public health crises, and democratic collapse.

Drawing on quantitative research from Woodard’s university-based think tank project, Nations Apart exposes the true ideological and cultural divides behind today’s struggles over:



Gun control
Immigration
Health policy
Abortion
Climate Change
History
Authoritarianism and Democracy


But there is a road map to right the country: a carefully researched, vigorously tested common story for the country built on the mission set forth for us in the document that first bound our regions together, the Declaration of Independence. Combining compelling storytelling with scholarly vigor, Nations Apart offers a blueprint for bridging the rifts that divide us and ensuring the American dream of democratic self-government will reach its 300th birthday.



Monday, November 3, at 7:00 PM (doors 6:30 PM), following the talk, there will be Q&A and book signing



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Colin Woodard, a New York Times bestselling author and historian, is the director of Nationhood Lab at Salve Regina University’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, where he studies the problems of United States nationhood and how to solve them. A veteran foreign correspondent who has reported from more than fifty countries and seven continents, he covered the fall and rise of authoritarian regimes across Eastern Europe and the Balkans and the aftermath of the Bosnian genocide. He received a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for his investigative work at Maine’s Portland Press Herald. He’s the author of seven books, including American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood and Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America, which will be released by Viking Press on November 4th. His books have been translated into thirteen foreign languages and inspired a primetime NBC television series and a blockbuster Ubisoft video game.



He's a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, a past Pew Fellow in International Journalism at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies and a current Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London. He lives in Maine.



ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER

Alison Beyea is executive director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Senior Distinguished Lecturer of Public Policy at Colby College. A civil rights attorney with over two decades of experience, she served as executive director of the ACLU of Maine from 2014 to 2022. She is recognized for her leadership on criminal justice reform, racial justice, and youth rights. Earlier in her career, she practiced and taught juvenile law and policy, co-founded Kids Legal at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Chief Justice Daniel Wathen of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.



PARKING & TRANSPORTATION

The Greater Portland Metro’s Congress & Casco Street Stop is directly in front of our building, served by routes 1, 7, 8, and 9B.

Parking is available at the Arts District Garage, which has entrances on Casco and Brown Street, with a rate of $5 per hour. Metered street parking is available on Congress, Casco, Cumberland, Free Street, and other nearby streets. Free hourly street parking is available between Parris and Alder Street.



ACCESSIBILITY

To enter our building, patrons will need to navigate a single step. There is a wheelchair-accessible elevator and a ramp available upon request.

If you need accessibility accommodations/questions please contact us at programming@mainemechanics.org or 207-773-8396.

Literary Arts

Mechanics' Hall & Longfellow Books co-present a conversation with the bestselling author on his latest book

Colin Woodard's 'Nations Apart' w/ Alison Beyea

Mechanics' Hall

Colin Woodard's 'Nations Apart' w/ Alison Beyea

Mechanics' Hall & Longfellow Books co-present a conversation with the bestselling author on his latest book

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