This is something that has definitely been discussed outside of American circles but not necessarily as any sort of academic analysis and as far as I am aware, not as any in-depth study on the American psyche.
It's been more a case of questions such as: -
Do the Americans really not understand that it was not "Americans" fighting the British but that it was British colonists fighting against British authority?
Do they not understand that the militias were probably taught how to fight by the British Army so that they could defend against the indigenous peoples and also potential invasions from Britain's European rivals?
Do they not get taught that their famous generals were officers in the British military before they were in the Colonial army?
Do they not learn enough history to know that the British were also fighting Spain and France at the same time as they were fighting the American colonies?
Do they not know that the war in the American colonies was an unpopular war in Britain and many British officers felt that they should not be making war on their colonial cousins but should be expending all their efforts against Spain/France etc. etc.?
Do the Americans not realize that they owe the French a debt of gratitude for all the assistance that France gave them and that without the Louisiana Purchase they would not exist in the form they are today?
Do they not know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the American people and had its origin in a similar project intended to stand at the entrance to the Suez Canal in imitation of the Colossus of Rhodes?
Do they not get taught that France left NATO because DeGaulle felt Europe had been betrayed by the USA after JFK's declaration that the US would no longer consider using nuclear weapons as a first option if the USSR invaded Europe and that this action has influenced French foreign policy ever since?
Do they not realize that all their "cheese eating surrender monkey" comments just serve to reinforce the French belief of US betrayal?
I'm hoping my comments are not taken the wrong way as I intend no insult. It appears to many of us outsiders that US citizens can get very emotional when their country is discussed and often miss the point of what was being discussed because they perceive attacks where none were intended.
I've had discussions with some friends who were either studying or lecturing at universities about the myth-making of America but the focus has been more on how the Wild West period has made such an impact given that it lasted a relatively short time. They found it interesting that relatively small pieces of US history were taken and given far more weight than they probably should have. They were also interested in the notion that not many Americans understood just how well the USA emerged from WW2 - going from the Great Depression into a period of massive manufacturing and then the liberties derived from the Marshall Plan boosted the US economy far beyond what anyone had projected and gave the USA the base for it's economic dominance of the world. It appears to us that none of this is given much relevance in US education.
We've also applied this same amateur examination to the grip that superheros have on the American psyche and from this discussions we've reached a conclusion that the USA has been trying to create it's own mythology, particularly since the 1930s. Whether this conclusion is correct or not requires further discussion but the underlying theme to us appears to be that the US hero worships the colonial militias, cowboys and superheros as something of a replacement for not having the history and traditions of their indigenous, European and Asian forebears.
It's been interesting trying to examine how the USA perceives itself. As an outsider to US culture, it's a little surprising to see that the USA has taken ownership of the terms "America" and "American" to refer exclusively to them because in some countries we were taught that America refers to the two continents. The inference was that anyone from North or South America was an American just like anyone from France or Poland or Greece was a European and anyone from China or Thailand or Indonesia was Asian.
Again, I intend no offence to anyone from the USA, I'm trying to show how some of us outsiders perceive the US and how we see the US perceiving itself.
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