What does this passge mean?

Question

If I'm anything at all I'm an American, only I'm not the kind you read about in history books or that they make speeches about on the Fourt of July; anyway, not yet. And a lot of people don't know what to make of it and don't like it. Which is tough on me but is liable to be still tougher on them because I don’t have to be told that Braddock ain’t Plymouth Rock and this ain’t the year 1620."

I know it is from the book "Out of this furnace" by Thomas Bell. It is about a family of immigrants working in early industrial era. Thats about it.

Answer 1

It is someone's opinion about what being an American means.

Although he claims to be different from the tradional American, he is still one, though a more modern, and in his own mind, a luckier one forthe lack of those earlier traditions.