Author and journalist Sean Egan will be releasing Decade of Dissent: How 1960s Bob Dylan Changed The World, via Jawbone Press, on May 20th, 2025. In telling the story of Dylan’s first calendar decade as a recording artist, Decade Of Dissent provides a unique angle on the artist’s career.

Dylan’s 60s recordings constitute a run that includes landmark albums like The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde On Blonde, the so-called ‘Basement Tapes’, and John Wesley Harding. They encompass the bulk of his greatest work.

This new book argues that during this time, we see Dylan “repeatedly instigate revolution, by turns reinvigorating folk music, turning protest song mainstream, bringing the intellectualism and social conscience of folk to rock and pop, reasserting roots music over the excesses of psychedelia, and making country music respectable.”

The book also features a supporting cast of collaborators and peers, from Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield to The Beatles and The Byrds. Drawing on exclusive interviews and 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.”

More about the author:

Sean Egan is an author and 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 The Faces.