Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science

by Benjamin Breen

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller

One of The New Yorker's best books of 2024

A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley.

"It was not the Baby Boomers who ushered in the first era of widespread drug experimentation. It was their parents."

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1538722372
• ISBN13: 9781538722374
• Release Date: January 2024
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Tripping review

Review: Scientists looking into how a horribly written book, basically a nasty and covert smear of two great scientists is eaten up by a hyper gullible public, will find in Breen’s book a wealth of examples. How so many people, including staff at NPR, are unable to judge the intent and worth of a book in 2024 is truly alarming. Breen is an intellectual midget. Bateson and Mead were not interested in promoting psychedelics though they were open minded on the subject and of course were widely consulted as experts. Bateson says they are trivial but Breen claims the two are central figures in his story. Story here in the sense of a lie.  Don’t buy this. Get something by Stan Grof or Hoffer and Osmond instead.