Books in Brief: The Nine Nations of North America

The Nine Nations of North America, by Joel Garreau (Houghton Mifflin, 427 pp., $14.95).

Divvying up the North American continent into new countries is an old game, like making up the greatest baseball team of all time. The Nine Nations of North America comes from an article of the same name that Joel Garreau wrote for the Washington Post (he’s an editor there) back in 1979. His basic premise is that despite the standardization of Holiday Inns, franchised junk-food spots, and TV sitcoms, North America is a collection of very different regions rather than one big monolith. His nine “nations” are Quebec, New England, the Foundry (everything between the Confederacy and New England), Dixie, the Islands, Mexamerica, the Breadbasket, the Empty Quarter, and Ecotopia (a Chileshaped strip running along the coast from San Francisco to Anchorage). Except for Quebec, Garreau doesn’t see any of these

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Jack D. Kirwan

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The Nine Nations of North America, by Joel Garreau (Houghton Mifflin, 427 pp., $14.95).

Divvying up the North American continent into new countries is an old game, like making up the greatest baseball team of all time. The Nine Nations of North America comes from an article of the same name that Joel Garreau wrote for the Washington Post (he’s an editor there) back in 1979. His basic premise is that despite the standardization of Holiday Inns, franchised junk-food spots, and TV sitcoms, North America is a collection of very different regions rather than one big monolith. His nine “nations” are Quebec, New England, the Foundry (everything between the Confederacy and New England), Dixie, the Islands, Mexamerica, the Breadbasket, the Empty Quarter, and Ecotopia (a Chileshaped strip running along the coast from San Francisco to Anchorage). Except for Quebec, Garreau doesn’t see any of these