Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom

"The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my barren entrails but to find therein some five thousand volumes of old ideographs. The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration - all the wrong of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified, the sixth cup calls me to the realm of the immortals. The seventh cup - ah, but I could take no more...Where is Elysium?"

These words of an unknown Chinese poet quoted by author Andy Letcher in Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom do not describe the effects of the titular fungus or any resulting brew, but the inclusion of the quote does much to reveal the approach Letcher takes to the magic mushroom and all its varieties. The author points out that the unknown poet is in fact referring to a brew of the leaves of Camellia sinensis, that is, nothing more than the innocuous beverage we know as tea. That is to say, poetic language and exaltation need not be reserved for the illicit substances.

Letcher's main assertion throughout Shroom is that claims of psychedelic mushroom usage by ancient peoples far and wide that ostensibly legitimize modern day attempts to revive an old traditions have very little foundation in historical fact. He invokes the above quote to demonstrate that vague, lyrical language from sources such as the Bible or the Rig Veda, or similarly inconclusive interpretations of somewhat mushroom-like art that are often cited by mushroom enthusiasts as evidence of ancient cultic usage could just as easily have been describing or depicting far more inert substances.

Letcher devotes the large part of Shroom to systematically picking apart the pseudo-historical psychedelic aura surrounding the magic mushroom, principally the fly-agaric and the Liberty Cap. Letcher does an excellent job of separating the intermittent facts from the larger corpus of mythic speculation. Most modern rational minds would have no trouble accepting the holes Letcher pokes in many speculative theories about the magic mushroom's legacy, but what makes the book interesting is that Letcher is quick to assert that although the magic mushroom likely does not have the mythical history often written for it, it does not need it to be interesting. The psychological effects themselves should be enough to spur interest in the fungus' verifiable history, usage and pharmacology.

Letcher also incorporates discussion about other psychedelics such as LSD, DMT and other, more obscure, psychoactives to better frame the mushroom's history. Stylistically, Letcher is a bit repetitive at times (I counted at least 3 uses of the word "halcyon") so the variety of topics discussed does serve to make the book more readable. The author's approach to the modern day use of the fungus is quite clearly sympathetic, but he stops far short of outright advocating for its legality or providing instructions on home cultivation (though allusion is made to further resources).

In the end the reader is left with a much clearer picture of how magic mushrooms have been conceived in the popular imagination, but, more importantly, how much of this image is ultimately rather inaccurate. Letcher rather eventually concludes that the magic mushroom is interesting enough without questionable myths of provenance. Further, given that many naturally occurring drugs are prone to this type of false beatification Letcher's critique of mushroom culture and history would easily cross over to other drug subcultures whose myths are likely just as shaky.

Personally, I agree with the assertion that many naturally occurring psychoactive plants are interesting enough without having to invent overblown histories and cultic associations. The mushroom experience, Letcher points out, means different things to different people. This being intensely personal, we cannot hope to understand the intricacies of personal experience upon individuals. What we can know is the honest history of a controversial fungus at once esteemed and reviled throughout history, and it's definitely an interesting story on its own.

A Natural History of Seeing

In A Natural History of Seeing author Simon Ings wisely prefaces his history with an admission that it is necessarily abridged. He evokes the image of many piles of research material stacked atop his desk to the illustrate the breadth and depth of scientific research and general historical information waiting to coalesce into the book that follows. Ings points out that he has written a book that scratches only the very surface of optical history. The reader will appreciate this preface more as the book progresses and the extent to which further exploration of any individual issue would have been possible in various places. It is good to know from the beginning, however, how the book stands to develop.

Abridgement aside, the book works very well for what it is. Ings manages to keep a coherent chronology running in the background as he discusses a variety of optical issues throughout the text. The book begins by asking a lot of questions about the eye and its complexity and function then proceeds to try and answer many of them. Ings devotes chapters to topics like color vision and color blindness, the relationship between seeing and thinking, and various manifestations of eyes in the natural world. These disparate parts do make a unifying whole somehow. That is, the text is very smooth, not scattered. The background history that traces how various scientific minds throughout history gradually understood the eye increasingly accurately helps to tie the tangents together and serves as their impetus as well.

Ings is also an entertaining writer. It takes a certain command of style to coherently tackle a topic as broad as "seeing," but he manages this task well. The unfortunate problem with this text is that so much necessarily must be omitted. Though this is no fault of the author, as a reader (and wearer of glasses or contacts since I was 8) I found myself hoping to read about topics that never got covered. To be sure, Ings did get to a lot of interesting observations on optical illusions and some of the phenomena familiar to me from comprehensive eye exams, but some optical questions of mine persist. What's the theory behind letters used in eye exams? What manifestations have eyeglasses taken throughout history? How did people deal with poor vision before eyeglasses were widely available? These questions, in addition to a curiosity for oddities of medicine and perception, went by without being addressed, often eclipsed by discussions of the eye as it appears outside of the human context. This was not to the detriment of the book as regards content, but my interests did not quite match up with Ings' judgment of what to include.

My guess is that this would be the case for any reader curious about optics. Ings provides something for everyone, no doubt, but everyone is also going to be left wanting something more. Ings saw this from the beginning though and ultimately succeeded in writing an entertaining and enlightening survey of optical history and science. He could conceivably write the entire book again and not repeat any information. For my part, I would certainly be interested in volume two.

The Ascent of Money

If this book were to be summed up in one word it would be the following: relevant. Completed in 2008 Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money is almost prophetic in its description of our worldwide financial bubble/decline in general and housing market fragility in particular. It is almost eerie to read Ferguson's assessment of the global financial climate and know that it was written before things got really ugly. Some people, it seems, could see it coming.

This is also a text that I would readily suggest to anyone feeling somewhat confused about the world of finance in light of recent events. Before picking up this text I would have had a difficult time describing what exactly a bond actually is in the first place, much less how the housing market entered into the current period of decline. I still would not feel entirely confident about describing these things in my own words in casual conversation, but Ferguson's book is understandable and straightforward to the extent that often unusually complex aspects of global finance are made to seem intelligible to those of us lacking any formal education in economics or finance.

Each chapter of his text chronicles the development of a different aspect of finance. Ferguson describes the rise of the banking system, followed by the bond market, the stock market, insurance, real estate and finally globalization. The final chapter describing the decline of the American empire and the rise of China is a bit convoluted and definitely the most difficult to follow, but the preceding chapters are very clear and quite captivating. Each chapter is chronological independent of the others producing a layered effect whereby each financial element can be seen interacting with the others that came before it. The cumulative effect is a thorough introduction to finance that avoids being either pedantic or overly simplistic so as to be patronizing.

Ferguson is a vivid storyteller, adept at making otherwise dense subject matter come alive by focusing on individuals within the larger story and using them as object lessons to illustrate a bigger point. One does not get the sense that the author is pushing a particular political agenda either. Rather, the history presented here seems as objective as possible if not a bit judgmental of the American habit of conspicuous consumption.

This is a relevant text that anyone at all interested in how we got into the current financial crisis should certainly read. Ferguson mentions the cyclical nature of finance multiple times throughout the text, suggesting in no uncertain terms that ignorance of past errors will undoubtedly result in their recurrence. We can all learn the lesson from our current crisis that it is wise to educate ourselves about finance and Ferguson's book is an excellent way to begin doing just that.

The Secret History of Dreaming

Perhaps a better title for Robert Moss' The Secret History of Dreaming would have replaced the gerund with the plural noun form of the key word. It is, after all, more of a history of various dreams than of the act, or the process, of dreaming. The titular nuance matters because the greater part of the book is composed of loosely connected mini-histories involving the dreams or dream habits of historical figures. It's unusual in that Moss is discussing dreams in early Christianity and Islam only a few pages before engaging the same topic with different actors - this time U2 and Lynrd Skynrd.

Moss has written other books on the subject of dreams and dreaming and hosts seminars in the same vein promoting dream awareness. He's something of a modern dream advocate. He comes off as quite knowledgeable as regards his history, but the book initially reads like the leftovers of prior scholarship that wouldn't fit anywhere else now collected and patched together. The first half of the book is vaguely organized but still readable if taken for what it is instead of trying to find a non-existent overarching narrative. The second half is better organized, but still lacking a defining message.

The book might have worked better if Moss had ditched the disjointed first part and simply expanded the second. The second half is a series of chapters each with a central focus, that of dream habits of a given historical figure, sort of an extended and focused version of the sort of mini-histories that make up the first half of the book. Moss covers Joan of Arc, Churchill and Mark Twain among others, and these chapters are actually quite interesting and illuminating. To be sure, a larger narrative is mostly lacking in this part too so it's hard to see the overall message Moss is trying to convey, but the chapters themselves are engaging.

Also, if it wasn't for my somewhat compulsive need to completely finish every book I start I might have set this one aside as soon as I noticed that Moss was using the rather informal "you" to address his readers. This suggested that the book itself might evolve into something rather new age in tone where dreaming takes the place of philosophy, religion or medicine and can solve problems if only we tap into its power and so forth. In this regard I was partly right, but Moss never went quite as far as I thought he could. His tone is ultimately rather "historical-informal" if that makes any sense. Not quite new age, but not rigorously analytical either.

The skeptical reader will find no discussion of confabulation or confirmation bias whatsoever, and Moss also avoids any serious scientific discussion of the dream process save for a quick reference to other texts of interest in his introduction. He's definitely a dream advocate and almost entirely without skepticism as regards the subject matter. Herein lies the major fault with this book - it never gets deep enough or critical enough. Moss skims the top of the dream history and succeeds in fomenting interest the content, but any one of his short segments of history could have been expanded and deepened into something more substantial. This is not the case, however, and the end result leaves the reader intrigued and entertained, but not necessarily flush with knowledge almost as if, having definitely read something, we might be at a loss to remember the details and find ourselves unsure if it really meant anything in the end. Fittingly, the book passes quite like a dream.

Presidential Courage

Michael Beschloss is a frequent guest on the PBS News Hour as a commentator for presidential addresses, speeches, etc.
This is not the deepest history book in the world and it over reaches in its story telling, but it makes for a good read, nevertheless.

From Publishers Weekly

Don't be afraid!" was George Washington's near-to-last utterance, to the worried doctor at his bedside. The essential founding father's counsel is understood by well-known historian Beschloss (The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany) to set an example for future presidents. Beschloss outlines how several occupants of the Oval Office—including Jackson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, FDR, Truman, Kennedy and Reagan—combined courage with wisdom to change the future of the country, notwithstanding the slings and arrows they earned. Despite its unpopularity at the time, for instance, Reagan's "strong beliefs combined with his optimism" led him to pursue the policy to abolish nuclear weapons, which helped bring down the Soviet empire peacefully. None of the author's heroes were saints, but rather flawed men sustained by friends, families, conviction and religious faith. With contenders for 2008 already lining up, this well-timed book might, the author hopes, persuade some to take the kinds of "wise political risks that Presidents once did."Perhaps. But knowledgeable readers should look elsewhere for genuine historical insight. The author's broad brushstrokes necessarily restrict him to painting nuanced individuals and complex times in only basic primary colors, and there is little that has not been said before—in some cases, many times. (May)
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From Publishers Weekly