All communities are imagined. The ‘global community’ is no exception to that rule. But imagination turns into a tangible, potent, effective integrating force when aided by socially produced and socially sustained institutions of collective self-identification and self-government, as it was in the case of modern nations wedded for better or worse and till death-dothem-part to modern sovereign st...

This article offers a short account of historical differences in the evolution of American and Canadian national identities, noting that both countries present textbook cases of the familiar theoretical concepts of constructed identities, invented traditions and imagined communities. It then takes a brief look at cross-border cultural politics, policy and media trade practicies, before finally ...