In linguistic terms, there is substantive precedent for the anthropomorphizing of the Russian motherland and German fatherland, and it is relatively normal (if politically loaded) to speak of a Jewish homeland.
Prior to 9/11, however, the only recognition of an ‘American homeland’ comes in a 1977 defence review panel, which recommended an ‘increased emphasis on homeland defense’ (link). For Pease, America’s status as a nation of immigrants should preclude the notion of an American homeland. For settlers and migrants, the ‘homeland’ marks ‘an archaic land from which the colonial settlers either voluntarily departed or were forced to abandon … a prehistoric pastness prior to the founding of the United States.’ (link, p. 8)
For Kaplan, casting the United States as a homeland is to emphasise the
‘discourse of diaspora and exile … [foregrounding] a sense of loss, longing, and nostalgia.’ (link, p. 83) Echoing the reading of 9/11 as a narrative echoing the Biblical fall from grace, the loss of innocence, this notion of the ‘American homeland’ is part of a re-imagining of the United States as a ‘place you came from … and long for but cannot ever really return to’. (ibid)
