One of Americaβs finest historians shows us how Bob Dylan, one of the countryβs greatest and most enduring artists, still surprises and moves us after all these years.
Growing up in Greenwich Village, Sean Wilentz discovΒered the music of Bob Dylan as a young teenager; almost half a century later, he revisits Dylanβs work with the skills of an eminent American historian as well as the passion of a fan. Drawn in part from Wilentzβs essays as βhistorian in residenceβ of Dylanβs official website, Bob Dylan in America is a unique blend of fact, interpretation, and affinityβa book that, much like its subject, shifts gears and changes shape as the occasion warrants.
Beginning with his explosion onto the scene in 1961, this book follows Dylan as he continues to develop a body of musical and literary work unique in our cultural history. Wilentzβs approach places Dylanβs music in the context of its time, including the early influences of Popular Front ideology and Beat aesthetics, and offers a larger critical appreciation of Dylan as both a songΒwriter and performer down to the present. Wilentz has had unprecedented access to studio tapes, recording notes, rare photographs, and other materials, all of which allow him to tell Dylanβs story and that of such masterpieces as Blonde on Blonde with an unprecedented authenticity and richness.
Bob Dylan in Americaβgroundbreaking, comprehensive, totally absorbingβis the result of an author and a subject brilliantly met.
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