This is a necessary and urgent read for anyone concerned about the United States' endless wars. Investigating multiple genres of popular culture alongside contemporary U.S. foreign policy and political economy, Imperial Benevolence shows that American popular culture continuously suppresses awareness of U.S. imperialism while assuming American exceptionalism and innocence. This is despite the fact that it is rarely a product of the state. Expertly coordinated essays by prominent historians and media scholars address the ways that movies and television series such as Zero Dark Thirty, The Avengers, and even The Walking Dead, as well as video games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, have largely presented the United States as a global force for good. Popular culture, with few exceptions, has depicted the U.S. as a reluctant hegemon fiercely defending human rights and protecting or expanding democracy from the barbarians determined to destroy it.

Dedication Acknowledgments A Brief Note on Terminology Introduction • Camouflaging Empire: Imperial Benevolence in American Popular Culture Scott Laderman 1 • Imperial Cry Faces: Women Lamenting the War on Terror Rebecca A. Adelman 2 • "Prowarrior, But Not Necessarily Prowar": American Sniper, Sheep, and Sheepdogs Edwin A. Martini 3 • "The First Step toward Curing the Postwar Blues Is a Return to Nature": Veterans' Outdoor Rehabilitation Programs and the Normalization of Empire David Kieran 4 • Exceptional Soldiers: Imagining the Privatized Military on U.S. Television Stacy Takacs 5 • Obama's "Just War": Th e American Hero and Just Violence in Popular Television Series Min Kyung (Mia) Yoo 6 • Superhero Films after 9/11: Mitigating "Collateral Damage" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Tim Gruenewald 7 • Humanity's Greatest Hope: The American Ideal in Marvel's The Avengers Ross Griffin 8 • The Perfect Cold War Movie for Today? Smoke and Mirrors in Steven Spielberg's Vision of the Cold War Tony Shaw 9 • Disfiguring the Americas: Representing Drugs, Violence, and Immigration in the Age of Trump Patrick William Kelly 10 • Black Ops Diplomacy and the Foreign Policy of Popular Culture Penny M. Von Eschen About the Contributors Index