what are some of the sectional differences that shaped American Politics into what it is today?

Answer 1

What a coincidence! I was just reading about this yesterday.

Jane Smiley posted a summary of the very complex book Albion's Seed in late December on Huffington Post (link below).

In the book, David Hackett Fischer traces four regions of England that contributed streams of population (and their differing cultures) to four different parts of the United States at four different periods.

Briefly:

- Liberal, educated urbanites settled New England.
- Large-scale landowning elites settled Virginia.
- Thrifty, peace-loving Quakers settled Pennsylvania.
- Poor refugees from violence settled the Appalachians.

Fischer links each of these groups and regions to a mindset and policies, and shows how they influenced policies from before independence through the 20th century.

Smiley gives what amounts to about a five-page summary with lots of interesting detail.