The famous Dupont slogan “Better Living Through Chemistry” was never intended to apply to drug use, but as Benjamin Breen explains in Tripping on Utopia, his charming and highly readable history of the rise and fall of psychedelic substances in the United States and abroad, it might as well have been.

A historian of science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Breen seeks to “uncover the secret history of the first wave of psychedelic science, a radical field that sought to harness the power of psychedelic substances to explore human consciousness, pioneer groundbreaking therapies, and even transform global society.”