Description: Bob Dylan's iconic 1962 song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" stands at the crossroads of musical and literary traditions. Alessandro Portelli explores the power and resonance of the song, considering the meanings of history and memory in folk cultures and in Dylan's work.
Review Quotes: Hard Rain is a rich and genre-busting meditation on oral history, on culture, on folklore, on poetry, on music, on Bob Dylan, and on many other things besides. Portelli, like Bob Dylan, brings to life many voices that are often not heard, and his book radiates critical acumen, encyclopedic knowledge and a bracing freshness of vision.--Mitchell Duneier, author of Ghetto: The Invention of a Place, the History of an Idea