‘Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed the World’ Book Due

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The success and critical acclaim of the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, has brought renewed attention to the first decade of his remarkable career. A new book, Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed the World, focuses on when he “stood head and shoulders in influence above all others.” The title, from author Sean Egan, arrives May 20, 2025, via Jawbone Press. It’s available for pre-order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.

From the publisher’s announcement: Dylan’s 60s recordings constitute a dizzying run that includes such landmark albums as The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, the so-called “Basement Tapes” and John Wesley Harding, and such classic songs that set the template for his genius as “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Just Like a Woman,” “All Along the Watchtower” and “Lay Lady Lay.” The career arc they collectively describe saw Dylan repeatedly instigate revolution, by turns reinvigorating folk music, turning protest songs mainstream, bringing the intellectualism and social conscience of folk to rock and pop, and reasserting roots music over the excesses of psychedelia.

Through each of his new identities, Dylan’s lyrics established him as the poet laureate of the counterculture. All during this time he was engaged in a personal voyage that saw him first embrace the blandishments of fame and then emphatically reject them. His journey during this era from ambitious nobody to cultural icon back to willing background figure makes for one of the most extraordinary narratives in the history of recorded music. It features a fascinating supporting cast of collaborators and peers, from Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield to The Beatles and The Byrds.

Dylan now occupies an unparalleled role as venerated elder statesman of music, but during his insurrectionary first decade he was the most important artist in popular music—and, by extension, one of the most crucial figures in Western society. Drawing on exclusive interviews and packed full of fresh insights, Decade of Dissent brings to life Dylan and his milieu at the point when he was making music that was not merely aesthetically magnificent but sociologically earthshaking.

The Dylan Decade of Dissent book author, Sean Egan, is a journalist based in England. He has written or edited more than thirty books on a wide range of subjects, from William Goldman to the Rolling Stones, Manchester United to Coronation Street, punk to Planet Of the Apes. They include Long Agos and Worlds Apart: The Definitive Small Faces Biography (2024) and The Guys Who Wrote ’Em (2004), an acclaimed history of non-performing songwriters. He has also written for, among others, Billboard, Classic Rock, Uncut, and Rolling Stone.com and contributed liner notes to reissues of albums by artistes including T. Rex, The Lovin’ Spoonful and Faces.