American drama is chiefly a drama of realistic family plays and its conventions revolve around the antagonistic impulses of security and freedom. Scanlan asserts that America's best plays are plays of family life and that they re-enact dilemmas of personal psychology and family structure.

The essays collected here represent prevailing scholarly attitudes and they focus on current areas of academic concern abroad, offering examples of the status of the study of America in other countries. They cover a wide range of topics related to the mutual influences exerted between America and other countries, from literature to economics, social movements to mass culture.