Even in America, MLA says you should place commas and periods outside quotation marks (unless they're part of the quote), whereas Chicago says you should place them outside. I prefer to put them outside quotation marks; there's a reason why this style is called "logical punctuation". MLA usually gets ignored in America, though.
I'm wondering if the reason MLA is usually ignored in America is that there is some truth to what I read about typewriters influencing the illogical style, which modern day editors seem to insist upon.
