American Studies has long been a welcoming home for adventurous intellectuals. Whether blurring disciplines or fighting for social justice, students of the field have generated new ways of understanding the culture and politics of the United States in aglobal context. But what happens when these innovations become widely adopted? Can a shared set of rules become a springboard to creativity? Ideal for classroom use, American Studies: A User's Guide offers readers: a critical introduction to the history and methods of the field useful strategies for textual interpretation, archive building, contextualization, comparative analysis, and theory interwoven toolkits that provide the basic framework necessary to understanding the field--Provided by publisher This book fills a long-felt need for a single work that can be used as a touchstone and launching pad for students of American studies at all levels. Deloria and Olson do a superb job of conveying the pleasure and the stakes of working in this field as well as the craft skills required to do it well.--Carlo Rotella, Boston College A very smart and playful hybrid of a book that captures the challenges and rewards of work in American Studies.--Ann Fabian, Rutgers University This book crackles with insight, wit, conceptual range, and analytical precision. The historical and methodological knowledge packed into this volume will benefit a vast array of students, scholars, and instructors. Students will learn what American studies is and how to model and perform its methods in their own research.--Ramzi Fawaz, University of Wisconsin-Madison