The Virtues of Captain America: Modern-Day Lessons on Character from a World War II Superhero

I will quote this bit found in the last chapter of White’s book as it summarizes so nicely the what and why of this book (from pg. 193): “If I did my job with this book, I will have given you a deeper appreciation of Captain America, whether you were a longtime fan, a new reader attracted by movies or animated series, or someone who never cared for superheroes much at all (until now!). I hope that my passion for the character—and my country—came through in my words as well as those I quoted from the decades of Cap’s comic-book stories, which are due to the dozens of talented and devoted creators who have built the character up from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s work in the early 1940s. But most of all, I hope you see the tremendous value Captain America has as a role model, both for personal virtue and judgment as well as for the kind of civilized discourse we as Americans need in order to tackle our many problems while respecting our founding ideals and principles.” In my estimation White did his job.White, who is an author or contributor or editor to a number of these pop culture meets philosophy class books, writes in an easy to engage conversational style and includes a variety of (often conversational) notes. He does not take it for granted that the reader is familiar with the philosophy or subject matter and takes time to review, define, and articulate concepts and views he applies to the subject at hand. In the early chapters of the book White explores Cap’s beliefs and ideologies and how they inform some of Cap’s most defining character traits. Out of the gate we are treated to discussion of Utilitarianism, Deontology, Virtue Ethics, and Deontological Virtue and what Category Cap tends to fall into and how this often contrasts with ‘ol Shellhead (Iron Man, nee Tony Stark, for those of you who are not comic literate). As a matter of fact much of the book has Cap being contrasted against Iron Man, the Red Skull, other would be Captain America’s (especially Jon Walker), and Flag Smasher. I found chapter 2’s discussion of both Cap as a fictional character written by many different writers and how theories of personality can apply to him and how he can be treated as “real” quite fascinating. Other chapters explore Cap’s virtues and how judgment is an important part of not only how he conducts himself but how he acts on some virtues at one time and prioritizing others at another time. Chapter 6 moves us closer to contemporary times as it focuses more on politics, the type of patriotism Cap does (and just as importantly doesn’t) display, and crises of identities that he’s had as a representative of America/ American ideals throughout his lifetime. The final chapter moves into calling on the readers to adopt Cap’s attitudes, principles, and ideals (justice, equality, liberty) and to focus on how people can disagree about how these are applied though they agree on how important they are fundamentally. All good stuff.The last two things I will comment on: 1) I have read and collected a little of Captain America comics back in the 1980s and then with the Civil War titles and I was surprised at how much White drew from those times which I was more or less familiar—the initial conflicts with Flag Smasher and their anarchic organization; the John Walker Captain America storyline; and the events of the first Marvel Civil War—if you’re familiar with these then White will be taking you on a few pleasurable trips down memory lane and (2) his one Appendix (Why Are There Seven Volumes of Captain America and Five Volumes of Avengers) is a concise, and almost worth-the-price-of-admission alone, 4 page explanation of the confusing world of comics volumes and numbering. This book is easy to get into, sometimes a little tedious with definitions, but always interesting. 4.75 stars.

There are lots of things we can learn from this fictional character and apply to our real lives. This book is well written. It's clear and easy to read. It's intelligent, thoughtful and heavily annotated. Mr. White seems to be smart, knowledgable and pleasant. One thing that might improve it is a chapter on how the Great Depression influenced Steve Rogers. There's an excellent online essay about this by historian Steven Attewell.The major flaw in this book is White's attempt to accept and justify the changes in Cap's morals over the past decade. White's ineffectual defense of the change in Cap's behavior (regarding torture, killing, war and letting others do his dirty work) indicates that there is no defense for Cap behaving this way.Why do we think circumstances are so unique in today's world? This has probably been an excuse to behave amorally since humanity began. Cruelty has always been cruelty, deceit has always been deceit, war has always been war, torture has always been torture, killing has always been killing. If Cap could fight Nazi's without compromising his integrity why can't he do it now? Is there a more insidious evil than Nazis?White says Cap is justified in condoning torture and killing because "one person now has the potential to do much more harm than entire armies could...with much less chance of being detected beforehand." How is this different from most of the super-villians Cap has fought for the past 70 years?The reason Cap's new morals are wrong is found in White's own quote- Cap is no longer "making sure every other possible option is considered, discovered or developed first". He's no longer thinking out of the box. It almost seems like White doesn't agree with Cap's behavior over the past ten years, but he makes a half-hearted defense anyways. If you want an example of how Cap can still behave as he always has in a more realistic, modern setting check out Reiber's Marvel Knight's stories (which White himself sights in his extensive and excellent notes).When a hero's been around a long time and passed through the hands of many writers, the true version of the character has to be whatever general traits can be traced throughout all those years. Traits that have appeared rarely should be disregarded when discussing what a character is really like.Some heroes teach you to do good in spite of your imperfections. Cap teaches you to do good in spite of humanities imperfections. I don't want Steve Rogers to be more like us. I want him to inspire us to be more like him. Cap was always about "not sinking to their level". As he said in issue #241: "No man can be denied their rights, or else none of us has any rights! If you fight on their terms you're no better than they are!"Superhero stories are modern myths and morality plays. Their applicability - what they say about humanity and about right & wrong - is more important than whether they have complete reality. Especially since complete realism is impossible when your premise is a person with fantastical abilities running around in costume. If realism is really so important people would complain more when heroes outrun explosions, run through hails of bullets unscathed and survive impossible amounts of destruction.Being in a situation where you might have to consider killing someone is not very realistic, or applicable, for 99.999% of us. Most police men and women spend entire careers preventing and solving crimes without having to kill anyone. A situation where a hero truly can't avoid killing a villain is not impossible but should, realistically, be extremely rare. It should also be written for a very good reason.In a democracy, unlike a totalitarian state, we believe in a fair trial by jury. A hero shouldn't kill if the current threat is over- even if it means the bad guy might return to menace society in the future. If you want to prevent a villain from future actions then imprisonment will do that without having to kill them. Many of the ways heroes kill villains in stories now-a-days would make them murderers. Isn't that what the bad guys do, murder people? And don't even get me started on torture!Contriving plots where the heroes take the same actions that bad guys do means that the only difference between the good guys and the bad guys is who wins. But this is totally incorrect; villains are villains because they do heinous things. If a hero does heinous things then he or she is not a hero. I can appreciate anti-heroes, but I still look for my heroes to instruct and inspire me.Being a hero is about doing the right thing regardless of reward or punishment. Evil, at its most basic level, is a lack of empathy. So a hero must, above all else, have compassion for all life everywhere. This sort of hero is not unrealistic; they exist in real life. Normal, everyday people aren't getting into fist fights with the minions of the Red Skull, but they are doing what's right for the greater good instead of what's easy.It saddened me greatly when Brubaker changed Steve Rogers. How do you take a character who spent 40 years spouting how he was against killing and turn him into a killer? Steve Rogers came from an America that had been against a large standing army for 160 years. They were willing to fight when absolutely necessary but they didn't worship the military like we do now. A militarized Cap no longer represents all of us as he was intended by Simon & Kirby.Everyone always figured that, even in the fantasy world of comics, Cap might have killed during W.W. II. It was obvious to everyone that killing during a war and killing during peacetime are considered two very different things. It was obvious that Cap was against killing accept when necessary during a just war. It was also obvious that he wasn't going to fight in any of our less-just wars like Vietnam (which is why he should never have been written as having fought in Iraq).Why Marvel felt Cap needed to start carrying a gun during W.W. II is beyond me. Think about it: you're writing stories about costumed characters who have fantastical abilities and you say "hey this unrealistic character needs to realistically carry a gun." Kind of like worrying that the woodsman in "Little Red Riding Hood" shouldn't be able to cut grandma (alive) out of the stomach of the talking wolf that had successfully impersonated her- because boy that would just be unrealistic!You could certainly make a case, within the fantasy world of comics, that art-student Steve Rogers wasn't comfortable with guns and he found that his shield was as effective as a gun at stopping his enemies. Before he went off to fight in the war Cap shouldn't have been shooting the fascist spies he was bringing to justice anyways.If you're going to change the basics of who a character is why not just write about a different character? Kids need a compassionate, selfless Cap who's top priority is the common good. They need to see that heroism is not about militarism, not about blindly following orders or about being the meanest or the sneakiest. Kids need the Cap who's against lying, killing and torture. The one who never gives up searching for the option that allows him to do what's right not what's selfish or expedient.Anyway, back to the book- it's very good and I recommend it.

My husband is a huge fan and is loving this book.

I've taken philosophy courses but never felt they inspired or educated me in any way. This book introduces interesting concepts of philosophy and mixes them with comic book hero captain america, painting an interesting, vivid and relatable picture of ethics and morality. It has inspired me to think more about the morals of men and has greatly enhanced my understanding of the topic.

Terrific book. Unlike the "Popular Culture & Philosophy" (which I dearly love), this was pretty much devoted to a single theme, which gave it a through-line missing from the afore-mentioned series. Cap isn't a black & white, defend the American government stooge. Lots of nuance in the book, just like the Captain America series as a whole. Sent me back into my comic stacks to re-read the story-lines highlighted. Highly recommended.

It has been said that the Captain's ethics, morals, virtues, and outlook for life is outdated. I disagree, if anything it's needed now more than ever.This book should be used in class rooms. It's easy to read, and very well written.

This was a deep read, and Mr. White was thorough in his notes at the end of each chapter. This book is definitely worth a reading.

I really really like this book I am a big fan of Captain America. Wich is a plus but what I like about this book is cap's morals and why he is who he is.

A fresh look for any true fan of Captain America

With accolades from both comic book writers as well as respected psychologists, 'The virtues of Captain America' is a book that attempts to analyse the WWII hero and his comic book adventures in order to discover what lessons of character we as real people can learn from them.Written by Mark D.White - a professor and chair of the Department for Psychology at Staten Island College in the U.S - he must also surely be a huge comic book fan, as I dont think that anyone who wasnt a fan could write a work about the character of Captain America so painstakingly constructed and referenced.Essentially a number of smaller essays compiled into one volume, the book attempts to refute the common assumption that Cap is simply a bunch of black-and-white ethics representitive of a simpler time wrapped up in a flag, and argues that he is indeed a hero for the modern era with values and ideals that relates to 21st century problems and our personal lives.Chapters include discussion on ethics, whether a fictional character can ever be a real-life moral exemplar, looks at basic human virtues such as courage, humility and perseverance, tackles the specific virtues displayed by Captain America such as honour, respect, duty and sacrifice, considers the role of patriotism and what this does/should mean, looks at the role of politics, and asks whether we can achieve greater unity and civility in society by following the example set by a comic book hero.The book refers to dozens of examples plucked from throughout the entire history and publication of the Captain America comic, ranging from his early adventures debuting in 1941 all the way to relatively recent adventures in stories such as 2008's big crossover event 'Civil War', and referring to various significant stories inbetween such as 'The Secret Empire' and 'The Captain' as evidence in order to construct his arguments.As a lifelong Captain America fan, I thought the book remained an easy read throughout despite being no expert in the subject of psychology - something I had always considered somewhat stodgy and difficult to digest. Make no mistake however, this is a book about philosophy before it is a book about Cap, so some interest in the subject will likely be required.in terms of complaints I have very few. At a little under 250 pages, with quite a few of those pages dedicated to referencing the authors many examples and sources, I do feel that the book could have been longer. Whilst in principle I agree with Whites decision to focus primarily on the mainstream comic book universes version of Steve Rogers as the 'real' Captain America, I cant help but think that it would have been worthwhile also examining alternate versions of the character, such as that seen in the movies, the much more aggressive and jingoistic version seen in the Ultimates comic universe, or even other men who have filled the boots of Captain America such as William Burnside (the Cap of the 1950's), or John Walker (aka USAgent).Overall however a very nice read that compelled me to look at Captain America froma alternate angle, and allowed me to learn something a little different from one of my favourite comic book characters.

A very interesting point of view on one of the most famous comic-book and now movie characters. I think it's time that critics started realising that comic-books have as much literature value as any other book and began accepting them as "serious literature". This book gave a lot of food for thought and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Captain America.

Very good book, in fact the book NICK SPENCER, the man who has destroyed capt. América turning him into a "white nationalist" should read.