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Chapter 1: What does Captain America symbolize in American identity?
Right now, we are living through some of the most tumultuous political times our country has ever known. I'm David Remnick, and each week on The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'll try to make sense of what's happening alongside politicians and thinkers like Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, and so many more. That's all on The New Yorker Radio Hour, wherever you listen to podcasts.
This is America in Pursuit, a limited-run series from NPR and ThruLine. I'm Randa Abdel-Fattah. Each week, we bring you stories about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in the U.S. that began 250 years ago. Over the past few months, we've been exploring how people have pushed and fought to make the promises laid out in the Declaration of Independence come true.
And in so doing, they've defined and redefined what it means to be American. And what better example for understanding the identity of the nation than an American superhero?
We shall call you Captain America.
Captain America. Because of all the heroes, Captain America has always been a mirror into what it means to be American.
One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
First introduced to comic readers in 1941 on the eve of the United States' entry into World War II, Captain America was depicted as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white super soldier. To this day, his superhero costume is red, white, and blue, with a giant white star on his chest. He's pretty much wearing the American flag. And his only superhuman power is his strength.
He carries no weapon, only a shield. And he fights only when he must.
He's not someone who has always known power. So he is someone who knows what it is like to be the one getting sand kicked in their face. He's on the side of the little guy. Time for Captain America to go to work.
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Chapter 2: How did Captain America's character evolve after World War II?
He's a super American.
Stan saw things were changing, and he also saw that his audience was changing. So it's a big problem for somebody in entertainment like that. You know, if you take a stand on an issue, you potentially lose half your audience.
So Stan Lee tried to play it safe. But there was a lot of pressure for Captain America to be something more than a relic of World War II, which is what happened when the next generation of Captain America writers took over.
I always wanted a secret room like Batman had, you know, where you go through the grandfather clock and go into the cave or whatever.
This is comic book writer Steve Englehart. I met up with him at his home in Oakland, California.
And so... We built this.
It's a bookcase that's a secret door. Englehart wrote Captain America comics for Marvel in the 1970s after becoming a conscientious objector during the war in Vietnam. So here's this anti-war writer in charge of writing for a war hero. And Englehart begins to wonder if maybe where the writers before him went wrong was trying to equate Captain America with the American government or military.
Instead, Steve thought,
What if he stood for American ideals? The stuff that transcends whatever America's doing at this particular time. And then? They caught the Watergate burglars breaking into the Watergate Hotel to burgle the Democrats.
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