To understand regional differences more fully, let's take a closer look at
the regions themselves.
NEW ENGLAND
The smallest region, New England has not been blessed with large expanses
of rich farmland or a mild climate. Yet it played a dominant role in
American development. From the 17th century until well into the 19th, New
England was the country's cultural and economic center.
The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants of
firm and settled doctrine. Many of them came in search of religious
liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format -- the town
meeting (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders) in which citizens
gathered to discuss issues of the day. Only men of property could vote.
Nonetheless, town meetings afforded New Englanders an unusually high level
of participation in government. Such meetings still function in many New
England communities today.
New Englanders found it difficult to farm the land in large lots, as was
common in the South. By 1750, many settlers had turned to other pursuits.
The mainstays of the region became shipbuilding, fishing, and trade. In
their business dealings, New Englanders gained a reputation for hard work,
shrewdness, thrift, and ingenuity.
These traits came in handy as the Industrial Revolution reached America in
the first half of the 19th century. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island, new factories sprang up to manufacture such goods as
clothing, rifles, and clocks. Most of the money to run these businesses
came from Boston, which was the financial heart of the nation.
New England also supported a vibrant cultural life. The critic Van Wyck
Brooks called the creation of a distinctive American literature in the
first half of the 19th century "the flowering of New England." Education is
another of the region's strongest legacies. Its cluster of top-ranking
universities and colleges -- including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth,
Wellesley, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan -- is
unequaled by any other region.
As some of the original New England settlers migrated westward, immigrants
from Canada, Ireland, Italy, and eastern Europe moved into the region.
Despite a changing population, much of the original spirit of New England
remains. It can be seen in the simple, woodframe houses and white church
steeples that are features of many small towns, and in the traditional
lighthouses that dot the Atlantic coast.
In the 20th century, most of New England's traditional industries have
relocated to states or foreign countries where goods can be made more
cheaply. In more than a few factory towns, skilled workers have been left
without jobs. The gap has been partly filled by the microelectronics and
computer industries.
MIDDLE ATLANTIC
If New England provided the brains and dollars for 19th-century American
expansion, the Middle Atlantic states provided the muscle. The region's
largest states, New York and Pennsylvania, became centers of heavy industry
(iron, glass, and steel).
The Middle Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of people than New
England. Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what
is now New York State. Swedes went to Delaware. English Catholics founded
Maryland, and an English Protestant sect, the Friends (Quakers), settled
Pennsylvania. In time, all these settlements fell under English control,
but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse
nationalities.
Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a
bridge between North and South. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, midway
between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental
Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that
organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the
Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787.
As heavy industry spread throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson
and Delaware were transformed into vital shipping lanes. Cities on
waterways -- New York on the Hudson, Philadelphia on the Delaware,
Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay -- grew dramatically. New York is still the
nation's largest city, its financial hub, and its cultural center.
Like New England, the Middle Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy
industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as drug manufacturing
and communications, have taken up the slack.
THE SOUTH
The South is perhaps the most distinctive and colorful American region. The
American Civil War (1861-65) devastated the South socially and
economically. Nevertheless, it retained its unmistakable identity.
Like New England, the South was first settled by English Protestants. But
whereas New Englanders tended to stress their differences from the old
country, Southerners tended to emulate the English. Even so, Southerners
were prominent among the leaders of the American Revolution, and four of
America's first five presidents were Virginians. After 1800, however, the
interests of the manufacturing North and the agrarian South began to
diverge.
Especially in coastal areas, southern settlers grew wealthy by raising and
selling cotton and tobacco. The most economical way to raise these crops
was on large farms, called plantations, which required the work of many
laborers. To supply this need, plantation owners relied on slaves brought
from Africa, and slavery spread throughout the South.
Slavery was the most contentious issue dividing North and South. To
northerners it was immoral; to southerners it was integral to their way of
life. In 1860, 11 southern states left the Union intending to form a
separate nation, the Confederate States of America. This rupture led to the
Civil War, the Confederacy's defeat, and the end of slavery. (For more on
the Civil War, see chapter 3.) The scars left by the war took decades to
heal. The abolition of slavery failed to provide African Americans with
political or economic equality: Southern towns and cities legalized and
refined the practice of racial segregation.
It took a long, concerted effort by African Americans and their supporters
to end segregation. In the meantime, however, the South could point with
pride to a 20th-century regional outpouring of literature by, among others,
William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter,
Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O'Connor.
As southerners, black and white, shook off the effects of slavery and
racial division, a new regional pride expressed itself under the banner of
"the New South" and in such events as the annual Spoleto Music Festival in
Charleston, South Carolina, and the 1996 summer Olympic Games in Atlanta,
Georgia. Today the South has evolved into a manufacturing region, and high-
rise buildings crowd the skylines of such cities as Atlanta and Little
Rock, Arkansas. Owing to its mild weather, the South has become a mecca for
retirees from other U.S. regions and from Canada.
THE MIDWEST
The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the early 1800s
easterners moved there in search of better farmland, and soon Europeans
bypassed the East Coast to migrate directly to the interior: Germans to
eastern Missouri, Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The
region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant
harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn. The region was soon
known as the nation's "breadbasket."
Most of the Midwest is flat. The Mississippi River has acted as a regional
lifeline, moving settlers to new homes and foodstuffs to market. The river
inspired two classic American books, both written by a native Missourian,
Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi
and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Midwesterners are praised as being open, friendly, and straightforward.
Their politics tend to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered
with protest. The Midwest gave birth to one of America's two major
political parties, the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s to
oppose the spread of slavery into new states. At the turn of the century,
the region also spawned the Progressive Movement, which largely consisted
of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more
receptive to the will of the people. Perhaps because of their geographic
location, many midwesterners have been strong adherents of isolationism,
the belief that Americans should not concern themselves with foreign wars
and problems.
The region's hub is Chicago, Illinois, the nation's third largest city.
This major Great Lakes port is a connecting point for rail lines and air
traffic to far-flung parts of the nation and the world. At its heart stands
the Sears Tower, at 447 meters, the world's tallest building.
THE SOUTHWEST
The Southwest differs from the adjoining Midwest in weather (drier),
population (less dense), and ethnicity (strong Spanish-American and Native-
American components). Outside the cities, the region is a land of open
spaces, much of which is desert. The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in
this region, as is Monument Valley, the starkly beautiful backdrop for many
western movies. Monument Valley is within the Navajo Reservation, home of
the most populous American Indian tribe. To the south and east lie dozens
of other Indian reservations, including those of the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache
tribes.
Parts of the Southwest once belonged to Mexico. The United States obtained
this land following the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Its Mexican
heritage continues to exert a strong influence on the region, which is a
convenient place to settle for immigrants (legal or illegal) from farther
south. The regional population is growing rapidly, with Arizona in
