Gathered around the fire, a wayfaring scout troop share tall tales and songs about the life and times of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

A brash, imposing figure with a Texas drawl and a pathological fear of humiliation, Johnson didn’t fit the usual mould of the progressive politician. But through his mastery of negotiation and quid pro quo pragmatism, he passed some of the most sweeping civil rights and anti-poverty legislation of the 20th century. Yet he was also responsible for the devastating escalation of the Vietnam War; two sides of the same coin that make up his bifurcated legacy.

Heart of the Country trades in campfire songs and fireside tales to chart a path from Lyndon’s impoverished childhood in the Texas Hill Country to the lives of those riding the coattails of history.

Less a biography of Johnson than a counter-mythology that plays on the gaps and imaginative leaps that make up the cultural consciousness of a political figure and their times, Heart of the Country explores how speculation can contribute to a process of reimagining value. Around the campfire, the currency of stories and songs opens onto a vision of democratic participation where value is negotiated and debt is fugitive.