For the Hell of It: The Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman

Raskin's scrupulously researched history corrects many of the myths Abbie Hoffman perpetuated about his life and career, yet also prompts new respect for the man as an able political strategist and organizer. Hard to believe from the staid book jacket photo, but the author (now a university professor) was "minister of education" in Hoffman's Youth International Party, better known as the Yippies. Raskin generally keeps his personal involvement in the background, but it obviously informs his well-rounded, antistereotypical depiction of the messy, often demented nature of 1960s radicalism.