Uniformly accessible, informative, and well written, these 11 essays, virtually all of them by accomplished Miller scholars, explore the thematic filaments that tie Miller's plays to the moderately conservative values associated with Middle America. The book is marked by a commendable, refreshing breadth: it succeeds in offering enduring insights (to specialists and non-specialists alike) on Miller's unsurpassable power to lay bare the roots of the cultural landscape. Summing Up: RECOMMENDED. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. -- H.I. Einsohn, Middlesex Community College * CHOICE * Miller and Middle America.... is a welcome and valuable addition to students and scholars interested in Miller, American drama, and, indeed, American culture itself. -- Matthew Roudané, Professor and Chair of the Department of English, Georgia State University This book collects eleven essays by scholars of Arthur Miller, almost all of whom write from long and deep acquaintance with the plays and the playwright. The essays are a major contribution to our understanding of Arthur Miller, and of twentieth-century Middle America as well. They apply a wide range of critical perspectives, theories, and methodologies to the whole body of Miller's work, shedding particular light on the cultural context of the plays as revealed in Miller's treatment of such subjects as McCarthyist scapegoating, doctors, marriage, and murder, and they bring fresh insights into Miller's perennial thematic concerns, such as memory, urbanite longing for the frontier, and the nature of reality. -- Brenda Murphy, University of Connecticut, Board of Trustees, Distinguished Professor of English America lay at the heart of Arthur Miller's drama. He explored its past, challenged its values, held it to account. These original and striking essays come from the heart of America and are a reminder of what we lost when Miller died, and what remains to us in plays which never cease to move and disturb, and which reward the kind of critical engagement evidenced in this compelling book. -- Christopher Bigsby, Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England Uniformly accessible, informative, and well written, these 11 essays, virtually all of them by accomplished Miller scholars, explore the thematic filaments that tie Miller's plays to the moderately conservative values associated with Middle America. The book is marked by a commendable, refreshing breadth: it succeeds in offering enduring insights (to specialists and non-specialists alike) on Miller's unsurpassable power to lay bare the roots of the cultural landscape. Summing Up: RECOMMENDED. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. -- H.I. Einsohn, Middlesex Community College * CHOICE *
