Political World of Bob Dylan

Jeff Taylor is Professor of Political Science at Dordt College, USA. He is also the author of Where Did the Party Go? (2006) and Politics on a Human Scale (2013).Chad Israelson has taught history at Rochester Community and Technical College, USA, for eighteen years, gives numerous public lectures, and has been named Outstanding Educator twice. He has also taught at Augsburg University, USA and Winona State University, USA.

• 1. Preface.- 2. Bob Dylan's Roots and Traditional World.- 3. Voice of a Generation.- 4. Freedom and Justice.- 5. Conversion and Culture.- 6. Christian Anarchism.- 7. Dylan and the Jesus People.- 8. Dylanesque Politics in the Real World.- 9. Selected Bibliography.

"The authors have performed a small miracle in teasing a consistent political philosophy out of a seemingly chaotic life. ... Taylor and Israelson's achievement with this book is considerable: They have pored through Dylan's life and work like medieval kabbalists and have mapped out the underlying pattern. ... It deserves a wide audience." (Robert Dean Lurie, National Review, December, 2015) "After reading this book I had the feeling that Jeff Taylor and Chad Israelson understand Dylan better than Dylan understands Dylan. They made me aware that I had made Bob Dylan in my own political image, and that he is much more complex than that. This book gets two thumbs up from me." Tony Campolo, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Eastern University, USA; and author of It's Friday But Sunday's Comin' and Red Letter Christians "Bob Dylan rebel, Judeo-Christian anarchist and religious wanderer, lover of freedom, distrustful of the powerful, sympathetic to the poor and vulnerable, and neither Left nor Right is brilliantly portrayed in all his complexity by Jeff Taylor and Chad Israelson in this illuminating and important book." Murray Polner, Book Review Editor of History News Network and Co-Editor of Shalom (Jewish Peace Fellowship) "A brave and bold book, Dylan will never sound the same. Finally we have a careful and clear exposition of Dylan's theopolitics, and what a weird but compelling world it is. The political and the spiritual are the keys to Dylan's music, and this book demonstrates how they come together to unlock a remarkably cogent message concerning the nature and destiny of human society." Stephen H. Webb, former Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Wabash College, USA; and author of Dylan Redeemed "By taking the rare step of giving Bob Dylan's evangelical records and their cultural context the serious attention they deserve, Jeff Taylor and Chad Israelson have revealed yet another side of the singer: Dylan the Christian anarchist." Jesse Walker, Books Editor of Reason and author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia "In their extensively researched, engagingly written, and carefully argued examination of Dylan's thought and art, Taylor and Israelson portray Dylan as a Christian anarchist. They find this tradition, incorporating elements of both the New Left and the New Right, entirely consonant with Dylan's Jewish heritage and his Iron Range upbringing. Their analysis, sure to be controversial, both extends and sheds new light on previous Dylan scholarship." David Pichaske, Professor of English, Southwest Minnesota State University, USA; and author of Song of the North Country: A Midwest Framework to the Songs of Bob Dylan "Jeff Taylor and Chad Israelson's words are scented with the kind of insights sure to deepen our appreciation of Bob Dylan's gifts. As ably as any writers who have probed Dylan's politics, they clarify the complexities and explain the subtleties." Colman McCarthy, Founder of the Center for Teaching Peace; Adjunct Professor, American University and Georgetown Law, USA; and former Washington Post syndicated columnist "Packed with insight concerning Dylan's oeuvre and its relationship to God and man, Professors Taylor and Israelson go far in scrutinizing this purposely inscrutable man. When two authors are able to cull this much information regarding the political and cultural significance of such an important and enigmatic artist as Bob Dylan, the times really have a-changed." Christopher Westley, Professor of Economics, Florida Gulf Coast University, USA; and Associated Scholar, Mises Institute "Taylor and Israelson understand that only louts ... subordinate art to politics, so they eschew tortured exegeses of elliptical lyrics and attempt merely to understand, and celebrate, Bob Dylan's music and Christian witness. Nonetheless, they detect a Minnesota accent and anarchist bent throughout Dylan's career." - Bill Kauffman, The American Conservative, (November/December 2015) "Taylor and Israelson carefully and eruditely examine Dylan's conversion, his Christian life and its effect on his politics... The authors have not only provided insight into this portion of his life and works, they have also given it a value equal to his previous periods. In addition, the arguments they make in these pages create a needed and useful synthesis of these different times in the poet's life and work." - Ron Jacobs, author of Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies