It's been fascinating to look at American history from a European perspective. I grew up in America and went through its school system. Daily pledge of allegiance to the flag. Founding fathers. George Washington and the cherry tree. And so on. The American flag flies from most every public building, and many houses, and many citizens are "proud to be American."

Move away from this and you start to see things in a bit less of a rosy light, because the people in other countries are not raised to love all those things with warm hearts. Many people here feel deeply disturbed by the open displays of patriotism over there. Patriotism here in England, as I'm sure you've gathered Elvis, tends to be associated with right-wing racist politics, and yobs at football (soccer) matches. The national day here, St. George's Day, passes by every year with little remark.

I personally don't think it's a bad thing to feel affection for your country, the place you were born. And indeed, my hudband is English through and through, with a love of many English things. But he hates it when it becomes politicised into patriotism. He is revolted when he sees all the flags in America flying.

I do feel rather resentful that my own American history was taught with such a rose-tinted glow. I was raised with a blind, unthinking pride in being American. That was part of the job of the public school system. I learned little about other countries, their way of life, their histories, their religions. I made conscious efforts to study these, but many Americans can get by not even knowing much about Mexico or Canada, let alone the rest of the world, and what a myopic view of life this gives.

Face it, you can't give the same rosy glow to people like Henry VIII here. You might admire some English kings or queens, but you can't really cast them as saintly figures, the evidence of the good and the bad they did is clear for anyone to see.

I believe with all my heart that the way toward any truth is to study it from many different perspectives. How can you recognise a cube for what it is if you don't know how to see in more than two dimensions?