The present volume explores the ramifications of the American education system and its representations in various media. It opens up new vistas on controversial transatlantic debates on education in the USA, critically reflecting on historical and contemporary developments in the USA and their impact on European perceptions of a model which for many seems worth emulating. The first section of contributions offers fresh perspectives on political, social, and theoretical concepts of higher education in the USA, specifically targeting issues such as diversity, political objectives, and ideological controversies with regard to education. The second section offers a discussion of important, though sometimes neglected, historical aspects and tendencies within the American system of education. The third section focuses on literary and media representations of education in the USA. In addition, a fourth section highlights the German perspective with a special emphasis on problems of didactic conceptualization and selection of US-relevant teaching matters and materials. The contributions by fourteen experts from this field represent a choice selection of papers presented at the 2009 Jena conference of the German Association of American Studies.