There is a rather unfortunate essay going around the tech crowd titled
"The Refragmentation", describing concepts of nationalism and conformity in the US as centering around the Second World War. It is unfortunate, because this is a big topic with a lot of existing literature that is probably not commonly known in the tech crowd. It is also a very interesting topic. For any who want to persue it, I suggest
"Nations and Nationalism Since 1780"by Eric Hobsbawm as a starting point.