Many of you know Dave Luhrssen for his decades of chronicling Milwaukee music.

But Luhrssen also does double duty co-authoring books on a number of subjects, rooted in his undergrad and graduate history degrees from UW-Milwaukee, where he has also taught.

Among his published works are "The Life of Barack Obama," "Searching for Rock and Roll" and "A Time of Paradox: America Since 1890," co-written with UWM history professor Glen Jeansonne.

Returning to rock and roll, Luhrssen has now published a book with Jeansonne and Dan Sokolovic on Elvis Presley.

"Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times," is out in hardcover from Praeger for $44.95.

"Reluctant Rebel" is not a basic, straight-up biography. Certainly, Presley's life and career are captured in the book's 200-plus pages, but the authors focus their lens more tightly, exploring both Presley's relationship with his manipulative manager Col. Tom Parker and Elvis' impact on the musical and societal changes of the 1950s and '60s.

"Our impetus was to put Elvis in the context of the white working class Southern culture that shaped him," says Luhrssen. "(Author Peter) Guralnick did some of that, but we thought we could add more richness to the telling.

"'Reluctant Rebel' succeeded not only in doing that but in placing Elvis' rise and his stardom in the wider context of American culture. I think we explain many things with greater fidelity to the time and place than previous Elvis biographies, especially the circumstances surrounding his army service and the machinations of the TV industry in the '50s."

It's easy for younger generations to ignore or dismiss the impact that Presley had on pop music and society, but as the book's jacket reminds us, it was no less than John Lennon who said, "Before Elvis there was nothing."

Luhrssen says that a lot of people don't look deep enough to see Presley's underlying influence on most everything that came after him.

"I don't think Elvis cuts an impressive figure for many younger people because he is remembered as the sad man he became by the end of is life," he says.

"But it's important to remember that while rock 'n' roll was already happening before Elvis, without him it might have developed in ways we can't know. Maybe it would never have gained the mass audience he reached in the '50s and would have come and gone like Dixieland – a footnote in musical history rather than the dominant force for decades."

Luhrssen appreciates that "Reluctant Rebel" is the latest addition to a library building's worth of books about Presley. He rightfully maintains that the book takes a different approach and is unlike its predecessors.

"There are lots of Elvis books and many of them are dubious in one way or another: sloppy with facts, repeating the false assumptions of previous books, ignorant of Southern culture or coming into the project with one or ax or another (to grind)," he says.

"The best Elvis books to date have been Guralnick's two volume set – and no one will ever beat that as a detailed chronicle of his life. We didn't try."

Luhrssen also says he and his co-authors left their axe at home.

"We didn't begin the project looking for heroes or villains. We found that Colonel was a crude jerk who suppressed Elvis' creativity, but on the other hand, his canny understanding of television propelled Elvis to stardom. Reluctant Rebel offers a balanced account and interpretation."

Boswell Books will host a reading by the authors on Tuesday, Aug. 16 – the anniversary of Elvis' death – at 7 p.m. Admission is free. Mark your calendars now and we'll also remind you as the event nears.