This is a fascinating world history told through the eyes of the last leader of the psychedelic community. McKenna argues that, before the onslaught of the current dominator-model of society, humans lived in happy partnership, united in their love for mother earth. The key to this society was the ingestion of magic mushrooms, a psychedelic plant that offers its eater a view of a benevolent, beautiful and inherently vegetable mind -- the necessary vision for life in a partnership model.

McKenna makes a valid argument and the book is filled with very interesting ideas, though the middle section is bogged down with shred after shred of "evidence" pointing towards ancient mushroom use. This is a truly great book, though Archaic Revival is a much easier and enjoyable introduction to Terence McKenna and his outrageous yet convincing ideas.

_Food of the Gods_ by Terence Mckenna is an excellent addition to anyone's "alternative anthropology" library. New ideas regarding the origins of intellegent life are always very interesting. Mckenna also has some valuble sociological insights regarding the history of drug abuse, and reminds us that sugar, coffee, and chocolate are potent psychoactive substances that are just as addictive and just as unhealthful as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or psilocybin. It is refreshing to see someone try to level the playing field with regards to drug use, and finally admit that almost every adult in the entire western world is highly dependent on a variety of different drugs. It seems that Mckenna is taking a step in the right direction from a civil rights standpoint by lessening the taboos associated with certain drugs that are associated with the counter-culture, while reminding us of the caffeine and sugar addiction epedemic that is going on right under our noses. This book made me realize that drugs which are widely accepted and advocated by civilized society are not that much different from those which are outlawed. Overall, this is a fascinating anthropological and counter-cultural manifesto. Highly recommended.

Terence McKenna (Food of the Gods), Julian Jaynes (Evolution of Consciousness ...), Camille Paglia (Sexual Personae), and Ruth Eisner (Chalice & the Blade) all look at the same evidence, and come to radically different, but equally radical, conclusions about the origins of what we call civilization (while trying to keep a straight face). Reading all three is an interesting, fun, and maybe useful exercise in juggling different world views. Ask yourself: why did each of them see the same evidence differently?

Or, perhaps, it's just a matter of trying to make too much soup from too little stock. The reason we CALL prehistory "pre-history" is that there's so little history to work from, so each brilliant (or not) author gets to project their own interpretation of what they'd LIKE the evidence to mean. In McKenna's case, by the end of the book, it is obvious what he wants the evidence to mean. Terry McKenna wants us all to get off of what the Church of the SubGenius calls "Conspiracy Drugs," the ones that America got rich off of, like tobacco, caffeine, white sugar, distilled alcohol, and television. If we need to get high or drunk or trashed or whatever, he says that we need to go back to the drugs that first made human beings strong, fast, smart, sexy, and spiritual: organic psychedelics.

Of COURSE this is a weird and controversial view point. That's half the fun of this book. You know that only the trippers and the stoners are going to come out of the back end of this book fully convinced. But even if you're not one, you just mind find yourself a teensy bit convinced, and that, my friend, is a strange sensation. Besides, it's a rollicking fun read.

*
The subtitle is: the American public library in the information age.

The main strength of this book is in the historical perspective it offers. The authors give a broad, national overview of the public library as an institution, its governance and funding, and U.S. national information policy generally. This historical, research based approach makes for somewhat dense reading, but also makes the book a valuable resource.

The main drawback of Civic space/cyberspace is that the authors really do not provide much detail about the site visits to 22 libraries and other institutions which also shaped their thinking on the subject.

I found it frustrating that the book's generally postive comments about the future of public libraries and the ways that they are adapting to information technology were second guessed by the very last paragraphs of the book.

I would recommend this book mainly for librarians, library school students, or those significantly involved with public libraries in some way.