Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Cash as Contradiction
1. "What Is Truth?" Authenticity and Persona
2. "A Boy Named Sue": American Manhood
3. Gender and "The Beast in Me": Ramblers and Rockabillies
4. Race and Identity Politics
5. Man in Black: Class and National Mythologies
6. The Gospel Road: Cash as Saint and Sinner
Conclusion: "God's Gonna Cut You Down": Cultural Legacies
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Promotional Information

Explores the allure of Cash's contradictory persona

About the Author

Leigh H. Edwards is Associate Professor of English at Florida State University. She lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Reviews

"Wonderfully written ... a bravura tour around the cosmic ambivalence and contradiction of proletarian white masculinity. Cash was, as Leigh Edwards notes, a bundle of binaries, a hugely symbolic figure who embodied progressive and reactionary values and norms in a spectacular but also profound way that draws into question those very boundaries and definitions." Toby Miller, author of Cultural Citizenship "In Edwards's hands, Johnny Cash - the combination of the legend, the star, the man, the name, the musical corpus and its many significations - is transformed into a mirror through which we can examine southern, working-class identity." - Southern Cultures "Leigh H. Edwards's Johnny Cash the Paradox of American Identity offers a wideranging study of a compelling figure in American popular culture, and will be of interest to both fans of Johnny Cash and scholars in the fields of popular music studies, gender studies, and American studies."--Journal of American Studies "One book representing the new wave of country music studies is Leigh H. Edwards's Johnny Cash and the Paradox of American Identity. Edwards takes an American icon of country music and places him solidly in the field of American cultural history, dealing with such timeless subjects as class, masculinity, and religion."--History Compass