Michael Stewart Foley

Michael Stewart Foley is a writer and historian of American political culture - broadly defined. Born and raised outside of Boston, Foley is the author or editor of eight books, including the prize-winning CONFRONTING THE WAR MACHINE: DRAFT RESISTANCE DURING THE VIETNAM WAR, as well as FRONT PORCH POLITICS: THE FORGOTTEN HEYDAY OF AMERICAN ACTIVISM IN THE 1970S AND 1980S. He also wrote the 33 1/3 book on punk band Dead Kennedys' political masterpiece, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables. Foley won the R. Serge Denisoff Award from Popular Music and Society for his article on Johnny Cash's Vietnam War politics, and in 2021, he will publish a full political biography of the Man in Black, CITIZEN CASH: THE POLITICAL LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHNNY CASH, with Basic Books.

Foley has served as historical advisor on a number of award-winning films and television shows, including Mad Men, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Boston Sunday Globe, Salon, and The Daily Beast, among other news and public affairs outlets.

He is Professor of American History at Université Grenoble Alpes in France.