Peter L. Hays is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Davis, USA. Kent Nicholson is an award winning theatre director and is New Works Director for TheatreWorks. He serves on the board of directors of The Playwrights Foundation and The National Alliance for Musical Theater.

"...a carefully structured guide for students that offers a captivating in-depth study of the text...Enriching our approaches to Arthur Miller's plays, this concise theatre guide is a solid contribution to the study of Death of a Salesman as it offers a systematic and extensive analysis of the play. Besides, a step from the theatre to the economics of the '30s and '40s brings us to realize that this volume demonstrates the authors' remarkable knowledge of American historical, social and political context...that this book-length study guide deserves attention not only because it features explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols, together with a detailed analysis of major characters, but also because it includes practical group exercises for students to come to a better understanding of the play's structure. Full of dates, data, and specific details, Hays and Nicholson's fully informed theatre guide explores both theory and practice and strikes us as a carefully documented look into a worthwhile corner of American theatrical history. This very concise theatre guide undoubtedly represents an analytical tour de force." - Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines

• Series Preface; 1. Background and Context; 2. Analysis and Commentary; 3. Production History of Death of a Salesman; 4. Workshopping the Play (by Kent Nicholson); 5. Conclusion; References; Index.