This intensive reading seminar offers an introduction to recent and innovative scholarship in American history. Students' main project in the course is to research and write a “state of the field” essay on a subfield of their choice (in consultation with the instructor) that assesses the literature produced in the last decade or so. The essay will identify the key questions recently and currently animating the subfield, and it will discuss the descriptive and explanatory power of various approaches and modes of analysis. The course is required for Americanist graduate students, and for graduate students with an American History minor or a comparative field in American History. The course is taught in alternating years.