Abstract

March, 1941, months before the United States officially entered the Second World War, marks one of the first attacks made by an American force against Adolf Hitler. This literal strike was the cover of the first issue of Captain America, which featured a star-spangled superhero punching Hitler in the face. The trend of putting real people (like Hitler) into fiction (like comic books) contributed to the mythologization of WWII. That is, blurring the lines between fiction and reality made it easy for popular American history to ascribe morality to a historical event. This paper examines the ways in which Captain America followed this trend in the issues published before the United States was militarily involved in WWII.

First Advisor

Doug Sackman

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in History

Date of Award

Winter 12-2015

Department

History

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