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Title: Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond by Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain ISBN: 0-8021-3062-3 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: March, 1986 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.85 (27 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: LSD: What a Long Strange Trip.......and it ain't over yet...
Comment: This is surprisingly one of the best books I have read. The authors give a colorfully accurate account of the events that occured decades ago, all of which still echo into our current era. It covers the origin of LSD, as a drug the CIA funded research on for use as a tool for mind control applications using civilians and military personnel as test subjects. At the very outset, it was obvious that the CIA was well aware of the potential power of this substance in its ability to wreak havoc on the collective psyche, to shatter current assumptions and threaten cherished ego boundaries. Yet, eventually it became available to the masses who would come to extol it's use religiously and otherwise.....giving rise to the groundswell of counterculture in the 60's. This book, more than any other source I have encountered, explores the underlying causes of the demise of the cultural/political/self re-evolution of that time and gives us pause to reflect on the politics of consciousness - to see who really won The War Of The Mind. Proof again that truth is stranger than fiction. Be informed.........read this book.

Rating: 5
Summary: Somebody was THERE
Comment: Let me jump on the hype-this-book bandwagon...
Amazing! It's been said, "If you can remember the 60's you weren't there." Well, Lee and Shlain in _Acid Dreams_ not only take us back but provide an accurate, entertaining, and well-documented chronicle of government abuse of power and, once more, of the CIA's sinister involvement.
In these post-9-11 times when the current administration wants to unleash bureaucratic watchdogs on its citizens in the name of the "war on terror" this history book should alert us to what can happen when government agencies are set upon us unrestrained by checks and balances.
This history of "the CIA, LSD and the Sixites rebellion" is nothing less than a kaleidoscopic tour that not only names, but documents the outrageous actions of, the major players of the day from CIA Director Richard Helms to Timothy Leary to the messianic street alchemists who wished to bring instant enlightenment to the masses.
Whereas the CIA wished to conduct mind-control experiments on unsuspecting human guinea pigs, the underground rebels simply wished to expand minds.
Although many many infamous and not so infamous individuals are interwoven in this highly readable narrative from Dr. Albert Hoffman to Captain Alfred M. Hubbard to Abbie Hoffman to Charles Manson to Ken Kesey and Tim Scully the real characters are the CIA, LSD itself, and the Sixties! What a concept!
According to this richly documented and indexed (wow-the other reviewers are right-on;a hell of a reading list in its own right!) book, nothing of significance in the 60's was untouched for better or for worse by acid:The Free Speech Movement, the Vietnam war, campus demonstrations, the Nixon presidency, Ginsberg, Dylan, and the Beatles.
For instance, it's ghastly to read that Nixon seriously considered nuking North Vietnam but reconsidered due to the acid(?) energized youth that marched, protested, demonstrated, and risked violent police rioting to stop the war. Did LSD prevent another Hiroshima?
It's disgusting to read the elitist condescension by the very influential Clare Booth Luce (yes, of Time-Life) a tripper who believed acid should remain 'in the ruling class' and explained, "we wouldn't want everyone doing too much of a good thing."
It is, however, a pleasure and refreshing to read a book that debunks quite a few myths, distortions and outright lies about LSD spread by the government and other unscientific sources.
Only one other history book has excited me as much as _Acid Dreams_, William H. McNeill's slender volume _The Shape of European History._
Were it up to me I, too, would urge every single high school student to read _Acid Dreams_. It is a cautionary history that deserves to be not just read but preserved and remembered. I am 51, I think I was there, and the memory of some of the events still sends shivers down my spine.
Somebody was THERE, Martin A Lee and Bruce Shlain tell all, and _Acid Dreams_ eliminates page by page any excuses for historical amnesia.

Rating: 5
Summary: Lsd's impact on Culture
Comment: If you are considering purchasing this book, be aware of a few things. First of all, this book is not just about LSD and the CIA. This book is about the origin of use of many hallucinatory and mind-altering chemicals, and the impact that these chemicals, namely LSD and to some extent Marijuana, had on the ensuing counter-cultures of the late 60's and early 70's. Connections between the CIA and LSD are mentioned early in the book and referred to occasionally after that. Although, there does seem to be an underlying message in the book that maybe LSD usage in the public wasn't exactly accidental. Overall this book is very well written and does an above average job of providing reliable sources of the information. On the other hand, their are many instances where the authors use this book to express their own political ideations and personal opinions. Nevertheless, for the most part the reader is provided with a fairly in depth view of how mind-altering chemicals played a significant role in much of what was going on during this time period, including music, the Vietnam War, the hippies, art, and the intrinsics of many aspects of the U.S. government, namely certain intelligence agencies.

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