Editor's Note

Dear AMSJ Subscribers,

We are pleased to present our second annual Summer Reading Issue, Volume 53:3! We hope you take it to the beach, read it at a family reunion (share it with distant relatives, or use it to create distance if you need a little break), prop it up in the magazine holder on the elliptical machine and read while you run, or bring it along to your favorite park bench and leisurely peruse.

Last year, many of you told us how helpful the Summer Reading Issue was in planning your classes. Another way you might use this issue is to stimulate your research. There is nothing quite like the review essays in AMSJ for chasing away that summer writers block. We invite you to thumb through them when you are stuck as how to start, finish, or frame your book project, or to help you to situate an ongoing project in current scholarship. All we ask in return is that you take the journal with some ice cream or a cool summer drink and do what we (at least those of us who live in the US) tend to do too little of: contemplate. Our top notch review essay authors explore new books across a variety of fields— American slavery, nineteenth century race mixing through literature, Food and Fat Studies, Mormonism, the airline industry, and the Vietnam War—and we believe they will enrich your thinking and course preparation as you lollygag.

Lastly, we hope you will enjoy the antics of our photogenic board members who bring joy to this issue by posing for product-placement ads. We think the folks from Mad Men have nothing on our editorial board members, editors, and editorial staff.

Happy summer.