American popular culture at home and abroad

Preface . . ix
Acknowledgements . . xi
Introduction . . xiii

Coping with Success: Homo Empatheia and Popular Culture. Studies in the Twenty-First Century . . 1
Some Thoughts on the Black Roots of American Popular Culture . . 15
The Civil War in American Short Stories from the South . . 23
Will Rogers as an Innocent Abroad: Foreign Policy Dictums in Letters from a Self-Made Diplomat to His President (1926) . . 47
Real Heroes and the Real World . . 65
The Virgin in the Territory: The Redemption of Innocence in the American West . . 79
Joe Leaphorn as Cultural Mediator in Tony Hillerman's Mysteries . . 101
Marketing the Past: The "Country Living" Movement and the Transformation of Social History into Commodity . . 133
"Way Down Yonder in New Orleans": The Story of an American Popular Song . . 153
Myths Used for Propaganda: The Small Town in Office of War Information Films, 1944 - 1945 . . 161
For You the War Is Over: Film Images of World War II POWs . . 177
Joseph McCarthy as Cyberpunk? The Virtual World of the Fifties . . 193
Rockets as Power Icons in German and U.S. Popular Media . . 211            
The Multicultural World of Star Treck and Its Reception in Germany . . 229    
Culture Against History: Criminalizing America's Role in the Cold War . . 247
Select Memories and Poems . . 265
Van Helsing's Fight: The Figure of the Scientist in Film Adaptations of Bram Stoker's Dracula . . 287
Child Abuse as Metaphor: Andrew Vachss and Michael Jackson as Flip Sides of the Same Coin . . 309
Crime and Punishment as Merchandise: The Cases of Truman Capote and Norman Mailer . . 329
The Los Angelenos' Complex Cultural Identity . . 345
Computer Clip Art and Popular Image-Making: Old Stereotypes New Possibilities? . . 365

Biographical Sketches of Contributors . . 379