The Anarchists Cookbook

By Bruce Shawkey

The Anarchist Cookbook, first published in January 1971, is a book containing instructions for the manufacture of explosives, rudimentary telecommunications phreaking devices, and related weapons, as well as instructions for the home manufacture of illicit drugs, including LSD. It was written by William Powell at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States' involvement in the Vietnam War. Powell converted to Anglicanism in 1976 and later attempted to have the book removed from circulation. However, the copyright belonged to the publisher, who continued circulation until the company was acquired in 1991. Its legality has been questioned in several jurisdictions.

The Anarchist Cookbook was written by William Powell as a teenager and first published in January 1971 at the apex of the counterculture era to protest against United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Powell gained inspiration for his text from his experiences with Vietnam veterans while living in New York City, during which time the pacifist movements of the 1960s began to take a more violent turn. Powell began plans to become a writer but decided upon a political course when he was drafted into the Vietnam war, which inspired him to write "recipes" and later compile them into a "cookbook". The initial vision of The Anarchist Cookbook was to post instructional flyers in New York City, including how to properly throw a Molotov cocktail and how to make LSD. These "recipes" were eventually adapted to make up an entire book. From 1968 to 1970, Powell began researching in the "U.S. Combat Bookshelf" at the New York Public Library, including mainstream external texts such as The Boy Scout Handbook, and anarchist texts like Fuck the System by Abbie Hoffman.

A sample of the text appears below, talking about how LSD, or acid, is dosed:

Dosages:

The basic dosages of acid vary according to what kind of acid is available and what medium of ingestion is used. Chemically, the potency of LSD is measured in micrograms. or mics. If you're chemically minded or making your own acid, then computing the number of micrograms is very Important. Usually between 300 to 500 mics Is plenty for a five- to eight-hour trip, depending on the quality of the acid, of course. I have heard of people taking as much as 1,500 to 2,000 mics. This is not only extremely dangerous, it is also wasteful. 

LSD comes packaged in many different forms. The proverbial sugar cube is pretty passe, in the sense that other more feasible methods have taken its place. The most common are listed below. 

1. The brown spot, or a piece of paper with a dried drop of ED on it, is always around. Usually one spot equals one trip. 

and so forth.

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