In this week's lecture I provide you with definitions for the terms "nation" and "national identity." They are defined as follows:

Nation: a group that desires self government through an independent state.
National Identity: an institution that binds people together and creates a sense of belonging through common political aspirations.
With these definitions at the forefront of your mind, address the following prompt:

In the United States, we call baseball the national pastime, share certain cultural and historic values (such as liberty and equality), and have historically had some attachments to shared cultural symbols such as the national anthem and the U.S. flag.

But does this really represent a common pride and belief in a common destiny?

Is there really an American "nation"?



In the prompt above, you have 2 questions to answer:

Does this really represent a common pride and belief in a common destiny?
Is there really an American "nation"?
Your response to this prompt must be written in 2 separate paragraphs (one paragraph per question) and have a total minimum word count of 300 words.