This book examines Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis as distinctively global symbols of threatening and nonthreatening black masculinity. It centers them in debates over U.S. cultural exceptionalism, noting how they have been part of the definition of jazz as a jingoistic and exclusively American form of popular culture. “There is no other text that isolates these three jazz giants. The author approaches the topic in a way that is informative and insightful.” ―Matt Shevitz, Harold Washington College Aaron E. Lefkovitz teaches U.S. history at Harold Washington College, The City Colleges of Chicago, and DePaul University.