The first section of the book deals with some of the influential mathematics departments in the United States. Functioning as centers of research and training, these departments played a major role in shaping the mathematical life in this country. The second section deals with an extraordinary conference held at Princeton in 1946 to commemorate the university's bicentennial. The influence of women in American mathematics, the burgeoning of differential geometry in the last 50 years, and discussions of the work of von Karman and Weiner are among other topics covered.