The American popular hero has deeply bipolar origins: Depending on prevailing attitudes about the use or abuse of authority, American heroes may be rooted in the traditions of the Roman conquerors of The Aeneid or of the biblical underdog warriors and prophets. This book reviews the history of American popular culture and its heroes from the Revolutionary War and pre-Civil War "women's literature" to the dime novel tales of Jesse James and Buffalo Bill. "Hinge-heroes" like The Virginian and the Rider's of the Purple Sage paved the way for John Wayne's and Humphrey Bogart's champions of civilization, while Jimmy Stewart's scrappy rebels fought soulless bankers and cynical politicians. The 1960s and 1970s saw a wave of new renegades--the doctors of MASH and the rebel alliance of Star Wars--but early 21st Century terrorism called for the grit of world weary cops and the super-heroism of Wonder Woman and Black Panther to make the world safe.

Many North Americans are unaware of the history and politics of Latin America, and Latin American Heroes goes a long way to redress this lack of knowledge. These profiles of twenty-three history makers offer a unique view of Latin America through the eyes of men and women who devoted their lives to their countries, and to the freedom of their people. Here are fascinating mini-biographies of such influential and important subjects as Dona Marina (La Malinche), a former slave, born in 1505, who became an invaluable translator for Cortes; Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led Haitians to rebel against their French masters in the first major slave revolt in the new world, Jose Marti, the journalist, revolutionary, poet, orator, and charismatic leader of the fight to free Cuba from Spanish domination, and the modern martyr Bishop Romero, who, as an outspoken Catholic clergyman opposed to the abuses of the rightist regime in El Salvador, was murdered for his beliefs. You'll also learn about Brazil's Emperors Pedro I and Pedro II, the Women of the Mexican Revolution, Argentina's Juan and Eva Peron, Mexico's Emiliano Zapata, Venezuela's Simon Bolivar, and Cuba's Che Guevara. A straightforward and thoroughly researched biographical reference that amplifies some of the most significant voices in Latin America, past and present, Latin American Heroes is a long-overdue tribute to the people whose fearless struggle for self-determination changed history.

"A wise, humane and beautifully written book." —Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal From the best-selling author of Benjamin Franklin comes this remarkable work that will help redefine our notion of American heroism. Americans have long been obsessed with their heroes, but the men and women dramatically portrayed here are not celebrated for the typical banal reasons contained in Founding Fathers hagiography. Effortlessly challenging those who persist in revering the American history status quo and its tropes and falsehoods, Morgan, now ninety-three, continues to believe that the past is just not the way it seems.

From the bestselling author of "Benjamin Franklin" and recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize comes this collection of revelatory stories that redefines the notion of American heroism, challenging those who persist in revering the American history status quo.

In 1950, Main Street American was abruptly traumatized. The sudden prospect of thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union, Senator McCarthy's vicious anticommunist crusade, and the beginning of the Korean War all combined to dampen the public mood. The Cold War invaded every home. Rose maintains that 1950 was a pivotal year for the nation. He argues that the convergence of Korea, McCarthy, and the bomb wounded the nation in ways from which we've never fully recovered. Brimming with originality, this book makes readers look at the Cold War from a dozen different angles.

Heroes and heroic discourse have gained new visibility in the twenty-first century. This is noted in recent research on the heroic, but it has been largely ignored that heroism is increasingly a global phenomenon both in terms of production and consumption. This edited collection aims to bridge this research void and brings together case studies by scholars from different parts of the world and diverse fields. They explore how transnational and transcultural processes of translation and adaptation shape notions of the heroic in non-Western and Western cultures alike. The book provides fresh perspectives on heroism studies and offers a new angle for global and postcolonial studies.

This book analyses the representation of new models of masculinity in US recent science fiction cinema. By examining the figure of the “new hero”, a male protagonist with visible unconventional features, it explores new ways of gender representation on screen. Lynch’s Dune (1984) and the Wachowsky brothers’ The Matrix (1999) share many traits concerning gender representation and offer the type of the androgynous hero who stands for innovative prototypes of masculinity. As a result of these films’ analysis, the book uncovers the tangible controversy in current US society about gender tolerance.