_Keywords for American Cultural Studies can and should be used as an essential handbook, but it really is more like a treasury of the intellect, bulging with sharp insights and lasting revelations._ --Andrew Ross, author of Fast Boat to China _A crucial collection that's sure to spark discussion and debate. Filled with lively and incisive contributions from leading scholars in the field, Keywords for American Cultural Studies will serve as a touchstone for American Studies and related fields for years to come._ --Penny Von Eschen, University of Michigan According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a _keyword_ is _a word that is of great importance or significance._ On the web, "keywords" organize vast quantities of complex information. Keywords for American Cultural Studies offers these features and more to its readers, providing indispensable meditations on terms and concepts used in cultural studies, American studies, and beyond. Collaborative in design and execution, Keywords for American Cultural Studies collects sixty-four new essays from interdisciplinary scholars, each on a single term such as _America,_ _body,_ _ethnicity,_ and _religion._ Alongside _community,_ _immigration,_ _queer,_ and many others, these words are the nodal points in many of today_s most dynamic and vexed discussions of political and social life, both inside and outside of the academy. Here are essays by scholars working in literary studies and political economy, cultural anthropology and ethnic studies, African American history and performance studies, gender studies and political theory. Lauren Berlant writes on _citizenship,_ Micaela di Leonardo on _city,_ Eric Lott on _class,_ Fred Moten on _democracy,_ Brent Hayes Edwards on _diaspora,_ Judith Halberstam on _gender,_ Lisa Lowe on _globalization,_ Timothy Mitchell on _economy,_ Christopher Newfield on _corporation,_ Robert Warrior on _Indian,_ Nikhil Pal Singh on _liberalism,_ Vijay Prashad on _orientalism,_ Walter Johnson on _slavery._ Some entries are explicitly argumentative, others are more descriptive. Throughout, readers will find clear, challenging, critically engaged thinking and writing. Keywords for American Cultural Studies provides an accessible A-to-Z survey of prevailing academic buzzwords, and a flexible tool for carving out new areas of inquiry. It is equally useful for college students who are trying to understand what their teachers are talking about, for general readers who want to know what_s new in scholarly research, and for professors who just want to keep up. Contributors: Vermonja R. Alston, Lauren Berlant, Mary Pat Brady, Laura Briggs, Bruce Burgett, Christopher Castiglia, Russ Castronovo, Eva Cherniavsky, Krista Comer, Micaela di Leonardo, Brent Hayes Edwards, Robert Fanuzzi, Rod Ferguson, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Elizabeth Freeman, Kevin Gaines, Rosemary Marangoly George, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Sandra M. Gustafson, Matthew Pratt Guterl, Judith Halberstam, Glenn Hendler, Grace Kyungwon Hong, June Howard, Janet R. Jakobsen, Susan Jeffords, Walter Johnson, Miranda Joseph, Moon-Ho Jung, Carla Kaplan, David Kazanjian, Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Eric Lott, Lisa Lowe, Eithne Luibheid, Susan Manning, Curtis Marez, Meredith L. McGill, Timothy Mitchell, Fred Moten, Christopher Newfield, Donald E. Pease, Pamela Perry, Carla L. Peterson, Vijay Prashad, Chandan Reddy, Bruce Robbins, David F. Ruccio, Susan M. Ryan, David S. Shields, Caroline Chung Simpson, Nikhil Pal Singh, Siobhan B. Somerville, Amy Dru Stanley, Shelley Streeby, John Kuo Wei Tchen, Paul Thomas, Priscilla Wald, Michael Warner, Robert Warrior, Alys Eve Weinbaum, Henry Yu, George Yudice, and Sandra A. Zagarell.