This text surveys the writing genres that have contributed to the American notions of America. Essays from scholars from both sides of the Atlantic chart the range of responses to American nationhood, from colonial times to the present, and include dissenting responses from such communities as native American, black and feminist writers. Case studies from writers such as James Fenimore Cooper and William Carlos Williams provide a framework for discussions on topics such as colonial notions of America as the promised land, the discourses of nationhood in the republic, the sense of nationhood in American historiography, and the formation of the American canon.