Respects to Joey Ramone, but

[Bradford DeLong]

>That would explain why the U.S. has no fiction I know of that dramatizes
>and very deep feeling for "a people." My standard here is a French short
>story -- I forget both author and title -- about an Alsatian school
>teacher, on the last day (after 1870) when French will be the language
>of the school he teaches in. The next day the official language will be
>German.
>
>I can't imagine such a story being written by an American.

The fact that American nationalism is *not* based on blood, soil, 
milk-tongue, and descent is usually viewed as a plus, not a minus. 
Volkisch ideologies are not good thing.

Not to mention the fact that in America school teachers are of the 
same species as their pupils: neither Alsatians, Labradors, nor 
Poodles teach in American schools...