Geology Equals Politics?

Yesterday, I posted on "The Black Belt: How Soil Types Determined the 2008 Election in the Deep South," a fascinating discussion of how geology led to a distinct demographic and political pattern in the southern states. The author, Christian McNeil, has posted on a similar trend today in "Red States and Red Clay." Joking and snarkiness aside, this really is fascinating. Geologists know "in their gut" how fundamentally rocks shape people and culture, but most often we don't have the background in geography, history, and sociology, nor familarity with the literature, to firmly make the connections that this fellow has.

Must-read stuff.