Steal This Dream: Abbie Hoffman & the Countercultural REvolustion in America

Steal This Dream: Abbie Hoffman & the Countercultural REvolustion in America

In the tradition of Edie, the oral biography of Edie Sedgwick, Steal This Dream is a captivating roller-coaster ride of an oral biography of Abbie Hoffman and the sixties, told by over two hundred of those who demonstrated, protested, and lived through those tumultuous years. Abbie Hoffman was at the center of most of the political and social tumult of the sixties, as a participant, disciple, instigator, leader, and dissident. He helped fight for civil rights in the South, organized on behalf of the poor in New York City, was a leader of the Flower Power generation in Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, and was one of the most vocal and visible counterculture guerrillas in the fight against the war in Vietnam. He created chaos on Wall Street, experimented with psychedelics, hashish, speed, cocaine, and free love, planned be-ins, attempted to "levitate" the Pentagon, helped to disrupt the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and was one of the forces behind Woodstock. A genius at exploiting and manipulating the media, and through them, inspiring a counterculture across the country and throughout the decade, Abbie was the most famous hippie and revolutionary of modern times. A fast-paced and utterly compelling oral history told by the people Abbie worked with, for, and against--from Tom Hayden and Jerry Rubin to Paul Krassner and Timothy Leary-- Steal This Dream is the finest social history of the sixties yet written. Although there have been other biographies of the late-'60s radical dissident and counterculture publicist Abbie Hoffman, as well as his own writings such as Steal This Book , this oral biography strikes a valuable chord. Unlike other oral biographies--particularly those organized by George Plimpton around such figures as Edie Sedgwick and Truman Capote--with snobs waffling on about nothing much, the context of Hoffman's fame amid the political struggles of the '60s and '70s fits the mold of a many-voiced, democratic narrative. The interviews were carried out, selected, and assembled by the prolific Larry Sloman, former editor at National Lampoon and High Times , author of On the Road with Bob Dylan , and coauthor of Howard Stern's Private Parts and Miss America . In his own way, Hoffman could be a "shock jock" too, but during such gripping events as the Chicago Seven trial or demonstrations agains the Vietnam War, he could be funnier and sadder than Howard Stern ever was. Plagued by manic-depressive syndrome, psychosis, substance abuse, and relational problems, he ruined his life by choosing to deal drugs, which forced him to go underground for six years late in his life. Hoffman, who died of suicide, nevertheless possessed, as Sloman, who knew him from 1967 on, writes, an "incredibly sharp wit" and "charisma" that won him friends even when he was plainly exploiting them. A lively ride of a book, one that will bring back memories for anyone who lived through these parlous times of America's history. --Benjamin Ivry Hoffman is best remembered as the political prankster of the New Left, a genuinely deserving claimant in 1968 America to the title of youth leader. This "oral biography" combines testimony from several dozen Hoffman friends, relatives, and rivals, moving from childhood in Worcester, MA, to his lonely suicide in 1989 at age 52. Most famous as the maverick defendant in the 1968 Chicago Seven trial, Hoffman was radicalized by the Southern voter registration drives. A counterculture legend, he was a camera hog, compulsive gambler, reckless womanizer, and incompetent drug dealer. For every anecdote about a man whose highest concern was his next sexual liaison, another reveals a passionate protester against war and water pollution. The aptly conceived biography would have benefitted from more stage-setting passages by Sloman (who has collaborated on both Howard Stern best sellers), but its approach captures the complexity, if not the depth, of this manic-depressive, always broke, wannabe celebrity revolutionary. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.?Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., Upper Darby, PA Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Since his death in 1989 at age 52, Hoffman has been the subject of two biographies, Marty Jezer's Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel (1992) and Run Run Run: The Lives of Abbie Hoffman (1994), by Daniel Simon and Hoffman's younger brother Jack, that will satisfy readers seeking a straightforward narrative on one of the '60s least straightforward personalities. Perhaps inspired by Hoffman's complexity, Steal This Dream is a kaleidoscopic portrait of the man, combining excerpts from interviews with more than 200 people who encountered him--more or less intimately--in the course of his long, strange trip with selections from media coverage, government memos, and Hoffman's (and others') books. Sloman (aka "Ratso") is a veteran counterculture journalist--a past editor of National Lampoon and High Times who has collabor