I do think you're onto something there, Mick, about the relation to the land. Never thought about it before, but you do get this attempt in Canadian song lyrics to express something not entirely expressible about the effect of "wilderness" on the psyche. Often the attempt doesn't quite work; sometimes it does ("Trees and rocks, rocks and trees;/Rocks and trees, trees and rocks" repeat ad infinitum).

Some of the interest in our history and its characters is a bit of a defensive reaction to the inundation in American culture that we've been-subjected/have-subjected-ourselves to. (And which, as we have seen, can prompt unexpected outbursts of bitterness).