Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Siff provides two parallel narratives about LSD. The first focuses on the history of LSD, its popularity beginning in the mid-1950s and its fall from grace a decade later; the second concerns the way in which media attention to LSD changed journalistic methods. Recommended."--
Choice"The rich content of consumer magazines, especially those published before television became culturally dominant, remains largely unexamined by media historians.
Acid Hype illustrates how rewarding study of mass-circulation magazines can be. Who could anticipate Stephen Siff would find that such bedrock Republicans as Henry and Clare Boothe Luce personally embraced hallucinogenic drugs and encouraged their use in the pages of Life and Time?"--Joseph Bernt, Professor Emeritus of Journalism, Ohio University
"Stephen Siff. . . is never less than shrewd and readable in his assessment of how various news media differed in method and attitude when covering the psychedelic beat."--
Inside Higher Ed"This examination of the media's heightened interest in LSD in the 1950s and 1960s is an important book. Painstakingly researched, it provides a highly interesting trip through an era where it seemed all Americans were aware of the drug and many were taking it. This study unquestionably will be cited extensively by historians."--Patrick S. Washburn, Professor Emeritus, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University
"
Acid Hype is a conscientiously researched, thoughtfully conceptualized, and clearly written account of the media's significant role in manufacturing the LSD craze in America in the late 1960s."--
H-Net Reviews"A well-researched work of narrative history."--
Journal of American History"This examination of the media's heightened interest in LSD in the 1950s and 1960s is an important book. Painstakingly researched, it provides a highly interesting trip through an era where it seemed all Americans were aware of the drug and many were taking it. This study unquestionably will be cited extensively by historians."--Patrick S. Washburn, Professor Emeritus, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Ohio University
"Stimulating and enjoyable."--Matthew C. Ehrlich, author of
Radio Utopia: Postwar Audio Documentary in the Public Interest "Siff does a very good job of explaining the relationship between the legal system and social environment, as well as the key players in government and society during the so-called psychedelic years in the United States. This makes
Acid Hype especially valuable as a resource."--Sammye Johnson, Carlos Augustus de Lozano Chair in Journalism, Trinity University, and co-author of
The Magazine from Cover to CoverTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi
Introduction: Midcentury Media's Trip with LSD 1
1. Early Restrictions on Drug Speech, 1900-1956 17
2. Introducing LSD, 1953-1956 42
3. Creating a Psychedelic Past, 1954-1960 68
4. Research at the Intersection of Media and Medicine, 1957-1962 89
5. Luce, Leary, and LSD, 1963-1965 115
6. Moral Panic and Media Hype, 1966-1968 145
Postscript: Psychedelic Media 181
Notes 191
Index 227
