As outdoor entertainment venues in American cities, pleasure gardens were public spaces where people could explore what it meant to be American. Stubbs examines how these venues helped form American identity and argues the gardens allowed for the exploration of what it meant to be American through performance, both on and off the stage.

1. Performing Nation: The Pleasure Gardens as a Space for Defining America 2. Performing Place: The Rural/Urban Tension 3. Performing Class: The Challenge to and Reaffirmation of Class Divisions and Hierarchies 4. Performing Race: Native Americans and African Americans Within the Gardens 5. Beyond the Pleasure Garden