Abstract:
Since the early 1930s, the genre of comic books have featured stories to amaze, to frighten, and to entertain readers. However, comic books are not just forms of entertainment, but cultural artifacts that mirror and, at times, analyze the attitudes of a particular period. In this thesis, I am using Captain America as a way to trace the changes in popular American culture, from the character's inception in March of 1941 until the 2009 creation of a new Captain America. This study, using the framework of New Historicism, details the history of the character through the World War II, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Watergate Scandal, and the post-9/11 eras. The purpose of this study is to see how the Captain's attitudes and actions reflect those of his readers.
