New and Updated 2nd Edition

This book is the most comprehensive history of juggling ever published and once you open it, you immediately see why. Juggling – The Past and Future represents the life’s work of legendary juggling historian Karl-Heinz Ziethen. It reads like an encyclopedia, an inspiration book, and a visual archive all in one.

With well over a thousand photographs and illustrations, this beautiful volume takes you on a journey from the earliest known images of juggling in the ancient Egyptian tombs of Beni Hasan (c. 1994 B.C.E.) all the way to today’s most innovative jugglers and performance styles. You’ll discover forgotten props, lost techniques, iconic performers, strange dead ends, and surprising ideas that feel shockingly modern.

What makes this book truly special for jugglers is that Ziethen didn’t just collect facts; he organized juggling history into clear timelines and styles. As a close personal friend of many of the greatest modern jugglers, from Anthony Gatto to Francis Brunn, he documented juggling from the inside. You can literally see how tricks, props, and styles evolved, disappeared, and then returned centuries later in new forms. It’s a powerful reminder that almost nothing in juggling appears out of nowhere.

For amateurs, street performers, and professionals alike, this makes the book far more than a history lesson. It helps you understand why juggling looks the way it does today—and where there’s still room for you to innovate. If you’ve ever wondered whether an idea is truly new, or felt creatively stuck, this book gives you instant perspective. You can only look forward as far as you can look back.

This expanded second edition builds on Ziethen’s classic 4,000 Years of Juggling and adds new material, additional photographs, and updated coverage of contemporary jugglers and modern developments—placing today’s stars in a long, continuous tradition.

Details:

• 600+ pages
• Over 1,100 archival photographs, drawings, and illustrations
• Covers more than 4,000 years of juggling history
• Updated with modern artists and innovations

For less than the cost of a new set of balls or clubs, you gain access to nearly everything that has shaped juggling as an art form. This is the kind of book you keep within arm’s reach, pull out before building an act, and return to again and again.

A true must-have for anyone who juggles—and wants to understand why juggling is what it is today.

This edition was made possible with the support of Jim Hedrick (founder of The Comedy Barn Theater), Oddballs Juggling, Niels Duinker (ND Juggling), Erik Aberg, and Karen Holzman.