Known for his bass-baritone voice and somber demeanor, Johnny Cash was at home on love songs like "I Walk the Line" and unconventional country fare like "A Boy Named Sue." But as Michael Stewart Foley suggests here, Cash was also America's most prominent political artist, even though he didn't fit into easy categories—liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, hawk or dove. Drawing on untapped archives, Foley offers a major reassessment of a legendary figure, suggesting that Cash's politics were remarkably consistent in that they were based on empathy rather than ideology.