How Britain Got the Blues

How Britain Got the Blues was published in 2007 as a scholarly examination of the cross-cultural exchange between American blues musicians and British youth in the mid-twentieth century. Roberta Freund Schwartz, a musicologist, wrote the work to move beyond the mythology surrounding the British Blues Boom, focusing instead on how imported records were initially perceived, disseminated, and reinterpreted by British fans and aspiring musicians.

The book is widely noted for its detailed archival research, tracing how specific regional styles like the Delta blues and Chicago blues permeated the UK market through niche record shops and radio airplay. Critics and academics have praised the text for providing a rigorous, sociological framework for understanding the transition from post-war jazz and skiffle to the emergence of seminal British rock and blues-rock acts.