Unlike other regions of the United States, the unity of this highly industrial and urban area is defined as much by its power as viewed from other vantages as by a cohesive regional experience. Encompassing the Anglo-colonial foundations of American society the “East” or “East Coast” has been a variable referent, generally encompassing Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Yet it may be used to refer to domination (North versus South in the nineteenth century), modernity (industrial and post-industrial development) and decay (in opposition to the rising West). This cultural geography also coincides with the Sunbelt/rustbelt division of the US in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century although the rustbelt also includes older, upper Midwest states like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. “East Coast,” a broader term, encompasses Southern shores as well, but omits the Great Lakes. To make it more confusing, locals tend to orient themselves in terms of culture formations like New England (encompassing the first six states above) or the Mid-Atlantic area (parts of the last three, plus Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia).

From a functional standpoint, the Northeast can be defined by the Boston-Washington megalopolis that includes the economic (New York City) and political (Washington, DC) capitals of the nation, with important subsidiary centers in Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore—all connected by active train and highway routes. Moreover, this area has been a cultural stronghold for centuries due to the historical primacy of Anglo-European settlement and culture, as well as the institutions of higher education, medicine, history and culture established there. The intensely urban character of the Northeast, which nonetheless encompasses extensive rural and small-town life, has also been renewed over the centuries by waves of immigration. Initially these were dominated by Catholics and Jews from Europe, but, subsequently the region has seen both increasing globalization and a strong presence of African American internal migration as well as Hispanics from Puerto Rico and Latin America. Immigration and industrialization have contributed to political social orientations towards a Democratic/labor coalition in national regimes that have dominated politics there since Franklin Roosevelt. Both deindustrialization and the development of sprawling suburbs around the major metropoles have complicated this orientation, especially since the Reagan revolution.

While one might still note strong divisions of accent, cuisine and heritage among eastern centers, modern transportation and continual exchanges among cities and institutions continually recreate an eastern/northeastern society. This may be described in prejudicial terms (eastern intellectual snobbery, eastern (mass) media establishment) or as divisions within a continental nation—e.g. “Right Coast” versus the hip and conservative “Left Coast” of the West/Pacific Rim.