The American Monomyth
The American Monomyth is a 1977 book by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence arguing for the existence and cultural importance of an 'American Monomyth', a variation on the classical monomyth as proposed by Joseph Campbell.
Campbell's monomyth describes a hero's journey: a hero ventures from the normal world into a supernatural one, winning a decisive victory there and returning with a 'boon'. In contrast, Jewett and Lawrence define the American monomyth as:
A community in a harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to renounce temptations and carry out the redemptive task; aided by fate, his decisive victory restores the community to its paradisiacal condition; the superhero then recedes into obscurity.
In their 2002 book The Myth of the American Superhero and their 2003 book Captain America And The Crusade Against Evil: The Dilemma Of Zealous Nationalism, the authors extend the thesis by using examples from both American popular culture and the American religious tradition.
The American Monomyth posits a level of cultural belief in American society that helps to explain the desire in American government to "save" the world.