ISBN 0-8021-3062-3 (US pbk, 1992)

"Acid Dreams is the complete social history of LSD and the counterculture it helped to define in the sixties. Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain's exhaustively researched and astonishing account -- part of it gleaned from secret government files -- tells how the CIA became obsessed with LSD as an espionage weapon during the early 1950s and launched a massive covert research program, in which countless unwitting citizens were used as guinea pigs. Though the CIA was intent on keeping the drug to itself, it ultimately couldn't prevent it from spreading into the popular culture; here LSD had a profound impact and helped spawn a political and social upheaval that changed the face of America. From the clandestine operations of the government to the escapades of Timothy Leary, Abbie Hoffman, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, Allen Ginsberg and many others, Acid Dreams provides an important and entertaining account that goes to the heart of a turbulent period in our history." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1992]

"An engrossing account of a period... when a tiny psychoactive molecule affected almost every aspect of Western life." --William S.Burroughs.

"Incredible true story of secret government experiments with psychedelic chemicals on members of American society." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).

Recommended.

• Acid: The Secret History of LSD by David Black
  (December 1997, non-fiction...Vision, London, UK, pbk... Ronald Stark, Brotherhood of Eternal Light)

• LSD My Problem Child: Refections on Sacred Drugs, Mysticism, and Science by Albert Hofmann
  (1980, non-fiction... firsthand account of the discovery of LSD... highly recommended... I came across this link, but kept getting the dread '404 Not Found' message when I tried to connect)

• Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream by Jay Stevens
  (1987, non-fiction)