These useful additions to the growing body of Miller scholarship both challenge some expectations and allow for new perspectives on this seminal playwright. Arthur Miller's Global Theater begins a very interesting conversation, and offers much useful information. The collection considers how Miller's plays have been presented and received around the world, collating essays that each centre on a different nation's relationship with Miller and his drama, and thus exploring, in the best pieces, their ‘cross-cultural dialogue’ (p. 10). In his own overview of Miller's main plays and themes, the editor points out how Miller's plays have worked well in climates of political tension; subsequently, we learn from individual essays how Miller is viewed from Japan to Argentina, with stops in Israel, China, South Africa and several European countries. One interesting fact that emerges is that many nationalities play out their relationship with America itself in their attitude towards Miller.

Unsurprisingly, there is much emphasis on Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, but other plays are considered: most interestingly, productions of The American Clock in Germany, All My Sons in Israel, and Darryl V. Jones's A View from the Bridge set in the Dominican Republic. While some essays centre on one or two specific productions, others offer historical overviews of all major Miller productions in their specific nation. Some of these prove to be the weaker links in this generally compelling collection. Accounts of productions in Italy and Spain tend to be little more than lists, with scant description of performance or reception, and Michael Raab's essay on the German response to Miller tells us more about the Germans than about Miller (John Dorsey's does the same for Japan); but even these contributions offer good source material. Essays on South Africa, Ireland and Argentina do a better job of showing the connections between productions of Miller's work and national developments. Belinda Kong's ‘Traveling Man, Traveling Culture’, however, is the one essay I would have omitted, as she uses her objections to Miller's ‘imperialistic discourse’ (p. 36) to talk more about Gao Xingjian's Bus Stop than about Miller's plays in China. Proclaiming ‘Miller's ignorance on the ideological minefield over which he traversed’ (p. 53) suggests Kong has never read his Chinese Encounters.

Ironically, despite the declared global focus of Brater's collection, Mason's monograph seems to cover more territory. He explores Miller as an explicitly political dramatist, rather than his common consideration as a ‘social’ playwright. The difference, Mason explains, is that the political is more interested in the power dynamics of a given society: ‘The arc of [Miller's] writing and his involvement in real-world struggles suggest an intensely political sensibility that drove his perception of community and shaped his theater’ (p. 2). After defining his terms, the author considers Miller's overt political involvement through his essays, activities and dealings with the House Un-American Activities Committee. He then considers how the lessons learned here impact on his plays through a detailed analysis of Death of a Salesman as a ‘history of those who never had a chance’ (p. 99), and The Crucible as a play about ‘sanctioned terrorism’ (p. 128). Further chapters on ‘The Holocaust’ and ‘Violence’ concentrate on the less-talked-about Broken Glass and Resurrection Blues, and there is also welcome consideration of Miller's women characters and the ‘gender politics’ under which they operate.

While these four plays dominate his discussion, Mason does not ignore the rest of Miller's oeuvre, and there is plenty to consider in his politically inflected analyses. From a wider perspective, the author presents here an interesting study on how far all theatre in the United States could be viewed as politically involved, and his exploration of Miller's work underlines how, at least for this playwright, the personal and political were always closely entwined. In short, this is an insightful account of Miller's attitudes towards authority and social power structures, told through his drama.