Commies, Khrushchev and Captain America: The Cold War according to Captain America, Commie Smasher!

• In Event: Myth and Symbol in U.S. American Culture

Abstract

In comparison with other decades in the 20th century, the popular culture texts of the 1950s have been relatively overlooked in terms of academic scrutiny. This paper attempts to understand how the ultra-patriotic World War II era super hero Captain America was adapted to conform to the ideology of 1950s McCarthy America, and how this conformity to the dominant hegemony ultimately backfired, causing Captain America, Commie Smasher! to become a commercial failure.

Author

• Jacob Alexander Pearson, Illinois State University