Allegory in America begins with the perception that allegorical rhetoric has appeared in moments of cultural uncertainty regarding the significance of important myths, texts and icons. Deborah Madsen surveys the history of American allegorical writing from the Puritans through the period of American Romanticism to Postmodernism, and finds that allegory has evolved a double function.

In a series of theoretical chapters the rhetorical indeterminacy of allegory is seen to have generated a unique ability to represent more than one set of cultural myths. The mythology of American exceptionalism, developed by Puritan colonists to justify their migration and to elevate their New World to the status of the 'redeemer nation', is articulated in allegorical terms, but so too is the subversion of that mythology by dissenting voices that described an alternative destiny for the New World.

Each theoretical chapter is followed by the analysis of a specific text or group of texts that exemplifies this American tradition.