from: Introduction, Writing American Studies. By Simon J. Bronner (Chair and Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, and Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of American Studies online): "Having previously featured forums on the teaching and learning of American Studies, I move discussion of the practice of American Studies to its products in the form of articles, books, and essays. Increasingly, publishers use the label “American Studies” to identify the content of publications and that raises the question of whether this label derives from the background of the writer, his or her departmental or institutional affiliation, or a distinctive rhetoric. General readers in addition to students and colleagues might recognize the subjects of American Studies inquiry to be literature, music, film, folklore, or historical events, and legitimately ask, if anything, characterizes the style and approach of writing in this inquiry as American Studies. In this forum, three prominent writers working in, as well as with, American Studies reflect on their productivity and the trends of the field apparent on the bookshelf."