This volume reflects the history of, as well as potentials for, narratives of American art as shaped by international perspectives. As practicing historians of American art who have benefited from the field"s growth, we believe the time is ripe to address an aspect in the historiography of American art that has not yet been thoroughly plumbed: the transmission and exchange of ideas about American art and its history in international context. We operate from the premise that there is something to be gained for the history of American art from the international dialogue, that this dialogue is happening, and that it has hardly been accounted for.