http://www.amazon.com/Albions-Seed-British-Folkways-Cultural/dp/0195069056
“This fascinating book is the first volume in a projected cultural history of the United States, from the earliest English settlements to our own time. It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.”
I love that book, I read it once or twice a year.