Shaping our nation

"It is often said that America has become culturally diverse only in the past quarter century. But from the country's beginning, cultural variety and conflict have been a centrifugal force in American politics and a crucial reason for our rise to power" -- from publisher's web site. "The peopling of the United States is one of the most important stories of the last five hundred years, and in Shaping our Nation, bestselling author and demographics expert Michael Barone illuminates a new angle on America's rise, using a vast array of political and social data to show America is the product of a series large, unexpected mass movements-- both internal and external-- which typically lasted only one or two generations but in that time reshaped the nation, and created lasting tensions that were difficult to resolve. Barone highlights the surprising trends and connections between the America of today and its migrant past, such as how the areas of major Scots-Irish settlement in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War are the same areas where John McCain performed better in the 2008 election than George W. Bush did in 2004, and how in the years following the Civil War, migration acros