Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond
The history of LSD is as trippy as the drug itself. Discovered by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann in 1938, LSD eventually got into the hands of US government agencies, who looked into its potential as a brainwashing / psychological warfare substance (going as far as secretly dosing unwitting and innocent civilians with mind-blowing does of acid to study its effect).
LSD also worked its way into the literary elite as well as organized crime. It spawned cult religions and fueled the hippie revolution. It inspired new forms of artistic expression and turned the generation gap into an uncrossable chasm -- with martini drinking, flag waving, station wagon driving, Burt Bacharach listening squares on one side, and blotter licking, joint smoking, free loving, tambourine rattling hairy freaks on the other.
Acid Dreams goes deep into the causes and effects of the LSD revolution, introducing fascinating characters like Al "Cappy" Hubbard, a hard core rightwing acid evangelist, and Sidney Gottlieb, a CIA scientist who thought nothing of slipping acid to unsuspecting people and leaving a trail of permanently damaged (and in at least one case, dead) people behind. Even if you have no interest in the psychological effects of LSD, the social effects make for an engrossing story, which is expertly told by Acid Dreams' authors, Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain. $11.20 on Amazon
Comments
I've read this other great book about the history of LSD called "Storming Heaven". You should check that one out too.
Posted by: Cookie | January 22, 2006 3:12 AM