Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the troubled birth of psychedelic science By BenjaminBreen. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024. 384 pp.
American Anthropologist August 19, 2024 Jim Weil
With its catchy title, historian Benjamin Breen's Tripping on Utopia brings together controversial findings about the human mind, social engineering, and professional responsibility. He delineates the time frame and focus of an inquiry into psychoactive drug research by stating that “Timothy Leary and the Baby Boomers did not usher in the first psychedelic era. They ended it” (3). The...