Judas! From Forest Hills To The Free Trade Hall: A Historical View Of The Big Boo by Clinton Heylin

(Route, £14.99)

Bob Dylan’s 1965-1966 tour contained two moments that most Dylan enthusiasts will know about: the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when – reportedly – Pete Seeger tried to cut the power with a hatchet, and the 1966 Manchester Free Trade Hall concert when a folk purist called Dylan "Judas". It seems unimaginable today that such anger could arise from a man picking up an electric guitar instead of an acoustic one. This account of the tour fills in the gaps between those two events. Heylin sticks to the (repetitive) facts and doesn’t attempt to explore why there was such a split in the music world. There are some joyous moments, especially in the interview transcripts with Dylan, but there is little else. Heylin fails to write much about Dylan’s backing band, which is surprising considering what they recorded with the songwriter near Woodstock in 1967. This book is only for devotees, and even they will struggle to enjoy it.

Alter Egos: Obama’s Legacy, Hilary’s Promise, And The Struggle over American Power by Mark Landler

(WH Allen, £9.99)

This is an excellent and penetrating study of two important and divergent political minds in the Democratic Party. Although Clinton was Secretary of State for four years under Obama, the two had an uneasy relationship. Clinton admires and courts the military, while Obama is wary of how much sway they have over American foreign policy. A journalist for the New York Times, Landler can burnish a scene with aplomb and has an ear for how a politician’s word or phrase can reveal more about their character. Obama comes out well from this book: humorous, down-to-earth, and restrained. Clinton appears as "hawkish" as so many of her advisors. As a result, her approach to foreign policy does not differ from her predecessors in the Bush administration. The book is conveniently broken down into digestible chapters on some of Obama’s successes – namely the Iran nuclear deal and his diplomacy in Asia – and failures, the intervention in Libya being a catastrophic low point.

Immortal Memory: Burns And The Scottish People by Christopher A Whatley

(John Donald, £14.99)

This biography of Robert Burns’ afterlife is a fine piece of scholarship that examines what the Kirk called "Burnomania" in the 19th century. Since his death, the poet and his works have been used to bolster all sorts of causes. The Chartists used his political poems to add emotional depth to their fight for equality. The Cotter’s Saturday Night, with its simple message of wholesome Presbyterianism, offered a "powerful recipe for social contentment and became … a manifesto for the country’s conservative elite". It was a prominent Tory, Sir Archibald Alison, who was central in organising the Burns festival held in Alloway in 1844. Then there are the statues, the sheer number of which have kept Scotland’s sculptors in good employment over the years. Whatley’s academic style is sometimes jarring. He has a tendency to keep reminding the reader of what they have already read. But overall this is an intriguing and valuable story of how Scotland’s national Bard has been memorialised.