In this Book

summary
Now synonymous with Sixties counterculture, LSD actually entered the American consciousness via the mainstream. Time and Life, messengers of lumpen-American respectability, trumpeted its grand arrival in a postwar landscape scoured of alluring descriptions of drug use while lesser outlets piggybacked on their coverage with stories by turns sensationalized and glowing.

Acid Hype offers the untold tale of LSD's wild journey from Brylcreem and Ivory soap to incense and peppermints. As Stephen Siff shows, the early attention lavished on the drug by the news media glorified its use in treatments for mental illness but also its status as a mystical--yet legitimate--gateway to exploring the unconscious mind. Siff's history takes readers to the center of how popular media hyped psychedelic drugs in a constantly shifting legal and social environment, producing an intricate relationship between drugs and media experience that came to define contemporary pop culture. It also traces how the breathless coverage of LSD gave way to a textbook moral panic, transforming yesterday's refined seeker of truths into an acid casualty splayed out beyond the fringe of polite society.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xi-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction: Midcentury Media’s Trip with LSD
  2. pp. 1-16
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Early Restrictions on Drug Speech, 1900–1956
  2. pp. 17-41
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Introducing LSD, 1953–1956
  2. pp. 42-67
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Creating a Psychedelic Past, 1954–1960
  2. pp. 68-88
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Research at the Intersection of Media and Medicine, 1957–1962
  2. pp. 89-114
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Luce, Leary, and LSD, 1963–1965
  2. pp. 115-144
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Moral Panic and Media Hype, 1966–1968
  2. pp. 145-180
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Postscript: Psychedelic Media
  2. pp. 181-190
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 191-226
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 227-250
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.