Acid Hype : American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience / Stephen Siff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Siff, Stephen, 1972-

Series:

History of communication.

History of communication

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

LSD (Drug)--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

LSD (Drug).

LSD (Drug)--United States--History--20th century.

Hallucinogenic drugs--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Hallucinogenic drugs.

Hallucinogenic drugs--United States--History--20th century.

Drugs and mass media.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana, [Illinois] : University of Illinois Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

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 outlets across the media landscape 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. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Midcentury Media's Trip with LSD

1. Early Restrictions on Drug Speech, 1900-1956

2. Introducing LSD, 1953-1956

3. Creating a Psychedelic Past, 1954-1960

4. Research at the Intersection of Media and Medicine, 1957-1962

5. Luce, Leary, and LSD, 1963-1965

6. Moral Panic and Media Hype, 1966-1968

Postscript: Psychedelic Media

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780252080760

0252080769

OCLC:

907290306