American Studies Today: New Research Agendas. Ed. Winfried Fluck, Erik Redling, Sabine Sielke, Hubert Zapf (American Studies – A Monograph Series, 230).

This impressive collection of essays, American Studies Today, is the outcome of a conference of the same title, held at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Berlin, in November 2011. As the editors explain, the book sets out to explore “the state of contemporary American Studies in the light of recent theoretical developments and new research perspectives that are currently emerging in the field.” (p. ix) In view of the volume’s 480 pages, it would be futile to attempt an appraisal of all the articles in a short review. Just naming all 28 contributors (almost all of them eminent German professors of American Studies) and the issues they address would exceed the remit of this review – which will limit itself to characterizing the collection, its scope and emphases, and to furnishing a few noteworthy examples.