New York Times bestselling author Colin Woodard will visit Salve Regina University on Wednesday, Nov. 5, as part of a national book tour promoting his latest work, “Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures Shattered America.”
The free event begins at 5:30 p.m. at the university. Registration is available online.
Woodard serves as project director of Nationhood Lab, a philanthropically funded initiative of Salve’s Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy. His new book, published by Viking/Random House, goes on sale Nov. 4 and has been named a “must-read” by the Next Big Idea Club.
In “Nations Apart,” Woodard examines how colonial-era settlement patterns continue to influence modern American political polarization, economic inequality and public health crises. The 368-page book presents original data and historical analysis from Nationhood Lab to explain regional divisions on hot-button issues including gun control, immigration, health policy, abortion, climate change and democracy.
Kirkus Reviews called the work “a lucid exercise in political geography with tremendous—and disturbing—explanatory power.”
The book also proposes a framework for national unity based on principles from the Declaration of Independence, offering what the publisher describes as “a blueprint for bridging the rifts that divide us and ensuring the American dream of democratic self-government will reach its 300th birthday.”
Woodard’s tour will visit six states and Washington, D.C. The author, a historian and award-winning journalist, won a George Polk Award in 2012 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016. His previous works include “American Nations,” a Wall Street Journal bestseller.
