In breve:

The cultural impact of the United States is evident throughout the world. Movies, television, popular music and other key constituents of global mass culture are dominated by the products of the US.
This volume of essays provides a portrait and analysis of this complex culture. It explores its very diverse manifestations through essays on Hollywood and television, the novel, drama, popular music, sport, architecture and art. It also examines the roles of gender, ethnicity and religion in the construction of American culture in the twentieth century. One particularly important issue is whether there is a universal or dominant American culture and the extent to which this dominant culture has inhibited the expression of cultural diversity in an extraordinarily heterogeneous society. Have ethnic groups as well as women been culturally marginalized in the US?