This compilation of essential information on 100 superheroes from comic book issues, various print and online references, and scholarly analyses provides readers all of the relevant material on superheroes in one place. The American Superhero: Encyclopedia of Caped Crusaders in History covers the history of superheroes and superheroines in America from approximately 1938–2010 in an intentionally inclusive manner. The book features a chronology of important dates in superhero history, five thematic essays covering the overall history of superheroes, and 100 A–Z entries on various superheroes. Complementing the entries are sidebars of important figures or events and a glossary of terms in superhero research. Designed for anyone beginning to research superheroes and superheroines, The American Superhero contains a wide variety of facts, figures, and features about caped crusaders and shows their importance in American history. Further, it collects and verifies information that otherwise would require hours of looking through multiple books and websites to find.

American Revenge Narratives critically examines the nation’s vengeful storytelling tradition. With essays on late twentieth and twenty-first century fiction, film, and television, it maps the coordinates of the revenge genre’s contemporary reinvention across American culture. By surveying American revenge narratives, this book measures how contemporary payback plots appraise the nation’s political, social, and economic inequities. The volume’s essays collectively make the case that retribution is a defining theme of post-war American culture and an artistic vehicle for critique. In another sense, this book presents a scholarly coming to terms with the nation’s love for vengeance. By investigating recent iterations of an ancient genre, contributors explore how the revenge narrative evolves and thrives within American literary and filmic imagination. Taken together, the book’s diverse chapters attempt to understand American culture’s seemingly inexhaustible production of vengeful tales.

The US in the 1950s and 1960s wanted to prevent a new communist regime in the Western hemisphere at any cost. Under President Eisenhower the US pursued a policy of support for dictators, the economic shoring up of regimes that impoverished their own people and sanctioned direct interventions such as the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954. When John F. Kennedy came to power, he promised a reset of relations and set about pouring aid into Latin America. Yet in 1961 Kennedy also attempted to intervene in Central American domestic politics with the Bay of Pigs operation. How far was each of the approaches pursued by the two administrations responsible for increasing tensions and encouraging radicalism on the continent? In answering this question Bevan Sewell shows how Eisenhower's strategic stance on the Cold War became increasingly detrimental to Latin America over time, and shows how similar policies were continued by the Kennedy administration. The US and Latin America provides a new lens through which to assess US policy towards Latin America at an important time in inter-American relations.

Comic Books and American Cultural History is an anthology that examines the ways in which comic books can be used to understand the history of the United States. Over the last twenty years, there has been a proliferation of book-length works focusing on the history of comic books, but few have investigated how comics can be used as sources for doing American cultural history. These original essays illustrate ways in which comic books can be used as resources for scholars and teachers. Part 1 of the book examines comics and graphic novels that demonstrate the techniques of cultural history; the essays in Part 2 use comics and graphic novels as cultural artifacts; the third part of the book studies the concept of historical identity through the 20th century; and the final section focuses on different treatments of contemporary American history. Discussing topics that range from romance comics and Superman to American Flagg! and Ex Machina, this is a vivid collection that will be useful to anyone studying comic books or teaching American history.

The Hidden History of American Wars The assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia, triggered World War I, an unprecedented catastrophe which led to Fascist and Communist states, World War II, anti-Communist wars in Korea and Vietnam, and a world bristling with nuclear missiles. Why do the history books tell us so little about the triggering event? Some do not even mention the assassination. Most leave the impression that the gunman was a lone wolf. In fact, sixteen men were convicted at trial. Not tried were the higher-ups outside of Bosnia in Serbia and Russia. This was a multinational operation involving cutouts, safe houses, and poison for suicides. The intent was to start a short European war, but it soon grew into a world war. Wars often begin in ways unknown. The American Civil War began when the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter. But did you know the fort was trying to surrender? Why was it fired upon?

Provides a comprehensive overview of 10 major slave revolts and examines how those uprisings and conspiracies impacted slaveholding colonies and states from 1663 to 1861. Hundreds of slave revolts and conspiracies occurred during the two centuries that North America engaged in slavery. None were successful, but certain campaigns were significant enough to inspire other revolts, fuel a chronic fear of uprising in slaveholders and politicians, and keep alive the perennial desire for freedom felt by black slaves. Kerry Walters examines 10 representative revolts and offers narratives, primary materials, chronologies and biographies of participants for high school and undergraduate students. The book also contains an annotated bibliography of print and online primary and secondary sources for students seeking material for research papers and projects, as well as an examination of fictional depictions of slave revolts in novels and film. Walters offers information on a compelling topic that will be of interest to students of American history or sociology as well as anyone engaging in multicultural studies.

Eugene Windchy lays bare the tricks, errors and secret plans that have led the American people into avoidable wars. In order to prevent wars in the future, we need to know how they have come about in the past. A harsh light is thrown on our wars with Muslim nations. Did a “policy coup” in Washington demand regime changes in seven countries, as alleged by retired four-star General Wesley Clark? Our greatest national catastrophe was the Civil War, which began with Southerners firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. Why did the Southerners reject an opportunity to take the fort peacefully? We learn who opened fire and why. America’s entering World War I saved the Allies from defeat. Why in 1936 did Winston Churchill say the Americans ought to have stayed home and minded their own business? Did Germany start World War I? Triggering the war, according to our textbooks, was a young Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, who shot Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand. Was he a lone wolf? He was not. At trial sixteen men were convicted of participating in the crime. They were part of an international conspiracy that did not include Germany.