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Preface

1From its beginning in September 1983 as the American Studies Newsletter up to 1996, this journal covered various US-related topics in each of its issues, although sometimes a special theme was highlighted. Starting with No. 39 (1996) on The Internet, the ASJ issues became topical. In our Submission Guidelines we stated that we welcomed proposals for thematic issues. However, we also said that we would consider individual articles, and would continue to publish longer items as ASJ Occasional Papers.

2Much to our delight, the ASJ developed a fine reputation as a venue for scholarly publishing, and hence more and more manuscripts were submitted for review to our editorial team. Most of these were stand-alone articles. Over the past year, the backlog of accepted manuscripts grew quite large. To cope with the new situation, the editors decided to change the editorial policy of the ASJ. From now on, we will publish at least one issue per year containing articles on a variety of subjects, alternating with thematic issues. No. 62 (2017), the issue before you, is establishing this new pattern. See it as an American Studies garland: a miscellany of historical, literary, and cultural offerings, ranging from the early national period of US history to the present time.