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Adam Mendelson began the discussion by highlighting key questions about American culture: who we are as Americans, why we are the way we are, and what we hold in common as national values and characteristics. In addition, he explained where American identity comes from and where it is heading in the future.

Mendelson stated that true intercultural understanding comes from knowing how people from other cultures view the world. Mendelson further articulated that Americans often lack a complete sense of cultural awareness and are not heavily interested in global affairs. Referring to a quote from historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Mendelson explained that history serves the nation as memory serves the individual, and to lose a sense of either is highly problematic.

Dr. Gary Weaver spoke second, contending that many books written on history have occupied a separate realm from books written on culture. Weaver and Mendelson intended to blend these two perspectives into one book using historical sociology and analysis through a cross-cultural and intercultural framework. Weaver discussed U.S. history through the metaphor of a life cycle. He referred to the period until the Spanish American War as America's childhood, when its geographic isolation from other nations made the country lean towards non-interventionism. After the Spanish-American War and World War I, America entered its teenage years of what Weaver termed "unrequited love," when America’s overseas involvement in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba only incurred animosity. The rejection of America's intervention led to a resurgence of isolationist sentiment in the country. During World War II and the start of the Cold War, America’s "young adulthood" began. It was a time when the country realized it could not truly withdraw from the international stage.

Weaver identified September 11, 2001 as the start of a new period in America’s development. “America's Midlife Crisis,” is an attempt to understand where the United States and its foreign policy will head in this new era. Returning to the metaphor of America as an individual going through a midlife crisis, Weaver asserted that America faces tough decisions about whether it will revert to the behaviors of its youth or move forward towards maturity. Weaver concluded by stating that the last chapter of the book is intended to provide insight into where America’s culture is heading in the future and what the early indications are for how the country will emerge from its current identity crisis. "America’s Midlife Crisis" traces how a superpower reached middle age and what America’s midlife crisis means for the its future.