I'm not sure the comparison is apt. The Brits who comprised America at the start did not forfeit their English heritage in 1776 or at any other time. Modern Ame

I'm not sure the comparison is apt. The Brits who comprised America at the start did not forfeit their English heritage in 1776 or at any other time. Modern Americans share Shakespeare as a direct and pivotal cultural ancestor just as modern Brits do. The connection was never lost.