Much of the recent debate concerning the state of contemporary American poetry results in the question: What contribution does contemporary American poetry make to contemporary American culture? In his book, Beach attempts to answer this by analyzing issues such as poetry's loss of audience, the ""anthology wars"" of the 1950s and early 1960s, the academic and institutional orientation of current poetry, the Poetry Slam scene, and the efforts to framework that is fundamental to an understanding of the poetic medium and makes a compelling case for poetry and its continued vitality.