Tripped : Nazi Germany, the CIA, and the dawn of the psychedelic age / Norman Ohler ; translated by Marshall Yarbrough.

By:

Ohler, Norman

Contributor(s):

Yarbrough, Marshall [translator.]

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : Mariner Books, 2024Description: volumes cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9780358646501 :
0358646502

Uniform titles:

Stärkste Stoff. English.

Subject(s):

Additional physical formats: Online version:: No title; Tripped.DDC classification:

616.89/18 23/eng/20231205

LOC classification:

BF209.L9 O45 2024

Contents:

Introduction: Patient information leaflet -- Title TK -- From paint to medicine -- At the Zurich train station -- On location: Novartis company archive -- The mice don't notice a thing -- Swiss cheese and ergot -- Agrochemistry -- LSD in the archive -- Arthur Stoll's art -- The other Richard -- Brainwashing -- Title TK -- Alsos -- The missing box -- Advisor Kuhn -- Pork chops -- LSD in America -- Brain warfare -- CEO and CIA -- The case of Frank Olson -- Menticide -- Operation Midnight Climax -- Title TK-- Bulk order -- LSDJFK -- The revolt of the guinea pigs -- The bear -- Elvis meets Nixon -- A case of wine -- Light Vader Hofmann -- Epilogue: LSD for Mom.

Summary: "Berlin 1945. Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use-long kept under control by the Nazis' strict anti-drug laws-is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictionsof each allied power-the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis' anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove "useful" to the United States. Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis psychedelics program. Begun as an attempt to find a "truth serum" and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis coopted the drug for their mind control military research-research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century. Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, TRIPPED is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler's NEW YORK TIMES bestseller BLITZED. Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America's War on Drugs"-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: New Adult Nonfiction

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Non-Fiction	New Books	616.8918 OHL	Available		36748002554428

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A fleet-footed and propulsive account . . . Brilliantly sifting a massive history for its ideological through lines, this is a must-read." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The author of the New York Times bestseller Blitzed returns with a provocative new history of drugs and postwar America, examining the untold story of how Nazi experiments into psychedelics covertly influenced CIA research and secretly shaped the War on Drugs.

Berlin 1945. Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use--long kept under control by the Nazis' strict anti-drug laws--is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictions of each allied power--the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis' anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove "useful" to the United States.

Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis psychedelics program. Begun as an attempt to find a "truth serum" and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis coopted the drug for their mind control military research--research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century.

Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, Tripped is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler's New York Times bestseller Blitzed. Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America's War on Drugs.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Berlin 1945. Following the fall of the Third Reich, drug use-long kept under control by the Nazis' strict anti-drug laws-is rampant throughout the city. Split into four sectors, Berlin's drug policies are being enforced under the individual jurisdictionsof each allied power-the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and the US. In the American zone, Arthur J. Giuliani of the nascent Federal Bureau of Narcotics is tasked with learning about the Nazis' anti-drug laws and bringing home anything that might prove "useful" to the United States. Five years later, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Beecher began work with the US government to uncover the research behind the Nazis psychedelics program. Begun as an attempt to find a "truth serum" and experiment with mind control, the Nazi study initially involved mescaline, but quickly expanded to include LSD. Originally created for medical purposes by Swiss pharmaceutical Sandoz, the Nazis coopted the drug for their mind control military research-research that, following the war, the US was desperate to acquire. This research birthed MKUltra, the CIA's notorious brainwashing and psychological torture program during the 1950s and 1960s, and ultimately shaped US drug policy regarding psychedelics for over half a century. Based on extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, TRIPPED is a wild, unconventional postwar history, a spiritual sequel to Norman Ohler's NEW YORK TIMES bestseller BLITZED. Revealing the close relationship and hidden connections between the Nazis and the early days of drugs in America, Ohler shares how this secret history held back therapeutic research of psychedelic drugs for decades and eventually became part of the foundation of America's War on Drugs"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Introduction (ix)
Part I Medicine
1 The Zone (3)
2 From Paint to Medicine (14)
3 At the Zurich Train Station (22)
4 On Location: Novartis Company Archive (24)
5 The Mice Don't Notice a Thing (30)
6 Swiss Cheese and Ergot (38)
7 Agrochemistry (41)
8 LSD in the Archive (49)
9 Arthur Stoll's Art (54)
10 The Other Richard (60)
11 Brainwashing (65)
Part II Weapon
12 The Trip Chamber (69)
13 Alsos (72)
14 The Missing Box (77)
15 Advisor Kuhn (80)
16 Pork Chops (83)
17 LSD in America (86)
18 Brain Warfare (94)
19 CEO and CIA (96)
20 The Case of Frank Olson (101)
21 Menticide (104)
22 Operation Midnight Climax (111)
Part III Narcotic
23 Mösch-Rümms (121)
24 Bulk Order (129)
25 LSDJFK (139)
26 The Revolt of the Guinea Pigs (141)
27 The Bear (146)
28 Elvis Meets Nixon (148)
29 A Case of Wine (155)
30 Light Vader Hofmann (158)
Epilogue: LSD for Mom (162)
Acknowledgments (179)
Notes (181)
Bibliography (205)
Image Credits (213)
Index (215)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Bestseller Ohler follows up Blitzed, his exploration of Nazi drug use, with a fleet-footed and propulsive account of how the U.S. government picked up where the Nazis left off when it came to drugs. Concisely recapping the mid-century birth of psychedelics, he shows that the Nazis' approach to drugs--punitive regulation coupled with extensive utilization for military purposes--was adopted by the U.S. after WWII. (Juicing up the troops was the Nazi goal, achieved via amphetamines; interrogation and mind control became the American military aims for LSD.) So too the Nazi penchant for unethical drug testing was taken up by the U.S.--the sordid history of MKULTRA is elegantly laid out, including a Greenwich Village CIA safe house where beatniks unwittingly dosed with LSD were recorded and observed. Ohler laments this history while tracking it (mainly through scientists and officials who over time had a foot in both the Nazi and U.S. government orbit), pointing to the promising medicinal uses of LSD (especially for Alzheimer's, from which his mother suffers) that were quashed by American officials, who imagined the drug to be a powerful weapon. (LSD was powerful, but in a different way, according to Ohler, who argues the 1960s' cultural upheaval stemmed from widespread psychedelics use; he even insinuates that JFK's 1963 speech calling for world peace resulted from an acid trip.) Brilliantly sifting a massive history for its ideological through lines, this is a must-read. (Apr.)

Kirkus Book Review

An idiosyncratic trip through the annals of LSD. German author Ohler, author of Blitzed, took on the study of the history of lysergic acid, he recounts, when his father began to give Ohler's mother microdoses to help mediate her Alzheimer's disease. Indeed, he writes, legalization looms largely because "more and more governments are beginning to rely on scientific knowledge rather than bow to the ideological demands of the Cold War," with promising results in the treatment of dementia, addiction, and other maladies. The Cold War is an instrumental part of the history of psychedelic drugs, which stretches back into the annals of the Third Reich, developed by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann and experimentally used in Nazi camps to break down prisoners under interrogation. American investigators puzzling through the experimenter's records on "Chemical Methods for Neutralization of the Will" divined the possibilities such a drug might hold. Meanwhile, Ohler writes, postwar Germany was witnessing a narcotics boom as "more and more people took recourse to substances to help them get through the day--or the night." The reluctance of the Soviets to enforce anti-drug laws led to the suspicion that they might possess Nazi secrets related to LSD; soon, CIA agents were at pharmaceutical giant Sandoz's door buying up as much acid as they could. Enter the Ford Foundation, then Timothy Leary, the Beatles, and the psychedelic era. Ohler's travels in search of information take him from archives to the inner recesses of the mind, thanks to a little dosing of his own, and they're often entertaining. Jesse Jarnow's Heads covers a lot of the same ground, but the interweaving of Cold War spy-versus-spy yarns, as well as the speculation that the Nazis were racing to make new psychotropic drugs as much as new rockets, lends considerable drama to the tale. A winning addition to the literature of psychedelia. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.