What makes a people a people?

[Eva Elisabeth]

Many thanks for your great replies.

Bill, I highly appreciate your answer, first as I alway learn from your posts and books, second as I asked for each kind of guy's personal opinion,, whatever it was.

The US has a different kind of Union than most countries, I think. We have a multitude of different peoples, most of whom would fight to the death in the old country, if they had to put up with those who are their neighbors here. Yet essentially we get along here, ok. The great melting pot theory.

This is an aspect I admit I left out in my thoughts, and it will keep me reconsidering for a while.

Laurie, great input for me to think about, too.

"The citizens who migrated from Europe had witnessed monarchies, revolts, conquering armies, and the like. Maybe there was an ingrain thread through all of them that sought a unified and prosperous country where democratic ideals were fostered, and this remained/s at the core of our country."

This is what has fascinated me from schooldays on - how brave people in those days, hunted and persecuted for religious and political reasons, dared to start a new life in a new, widely unexplored world and then to found a new system of self-government while Europe was still dominated by medieval monarchies and rulers.