The EAAS grew out of the heady atmosphere of fellowship and enthusiasm engendered by a mixed, though by no means representative, assembly of scholars brought together by the Salzburg Seminar in April 1954 to discuss the problems and future of American studies in Europe. It was founded more in hope than in fact. Few foresaw the practical difficulties of arranging future conferences and of, in the meantime, publishing a Newsletter, Nor did or could anyone foresee the formation of important national associations in Germany and Britain. Would not these new bodies be too busy with their own concerns to bother much with wider associations?