Customer Reviews

Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a 5 Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial

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This isn't just a book that wakes you up. It grabs you by the shoulders, throws you against the wall, and hurls a bucket of water over your head while shouting "Look! Look! Look around you and see all the amazing things that you can do with your life!" Aside from being an engaging account of the events leading up to and including the protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, "Revolution" is a shot in the arm and the head for anyone needing hints on how to jump-start their brain as well as the country. Some of the free tips are obviously out of date and no longer do-able, but Abbie Hoffman's humor and in-your-face criticism are both sadly missed and badly needed in these days of seemingly neverending corruption and governmental malignancy. Hoffman's sort of thinking will never go out of style, and "Revolution" is the perfect way to begin one's path down the road to the 60's under- and over-ground, which he tours with a flair and wit one could only hope all others acquire in the process.

A great book! A revolutionary book. Yes, a sign of it's times and yet very relevant to this time in respects to action and freedom, long lost ideals in today's Right wing conservative society, at least by the majority. Although it was only a segment then too, it was a greater segment amidst a large sea of liberal tolerance and open dialogue. Obviously there was much Right conservativism then too, and staunch power control conservativism within the Democratic liberal front as seen by the whole Chicago convention affair, Mayor Daley, the brutality of the cops and so forth. Even on St. Marks Place in NYC, Hoffman speaks of the heavy police presence and harassments. So much of what is written at that time applies to today and it's overkill and abuses of privacy and freedom, all excused under the new "war on terror" banner flying through out and it's blinded patriots and nationalists.

It's the vision of liberty and the idea of the abolishment of property and ownership and yet this is not a book on communist maxims and tight political formulas, not at all. It is a book about the freedom of individual expression, autonomy, and most of all creativity in action. The heroes and influences are Che Chevarra, Castro and Cuba, Camus, McLuhan. The times have changed, things have regressed back to the masses glued to their ego roles as sole personal identification, taking too seriously, resulting in additional laws, loss or private rights, and most of all wars. Same as then it is now, except there were a great group of young minds that had the doors of their perceptions opened up through psychedelics and were able to see through and above the superficial roles that today are taken so seriously, the actions of intolerance, exclusiveness, cultural power domination, imperialism and internal restrictions masked under hidden agendas.

Except they the MOB, Yippies and so forth, were so radical and yet, that is what is needed in any revolution. Although the harassment that comes with it with outright false charges and even beatings applied by the cops and the government that it questions whether it is all worth it. It is, and it isn't, at least someone has to speak up. I am so grateful to the people of today such as Michael Moore who dare speaks up. And his is attacked and criticized for it immensely. Even mothers who children have died from war and are now protesting the Iraq war are met with severe opposition from George W. Bush nationalists and Christian religious fundamentalists.

Personally speaking, I wish there were perceptive openness today in people and those that spoke out against the police domination and conservative aggression played by the power people and moralist absolutists, but I prefer hermitude whenever possible and thus avoid all confrontations and abuses by those with power. Perhaps that is a cop-out, but it is safer and in reality, paradise is within and so is hell. There is also power in numbers and when the majority is under the spell of the propaganda of the leaders then the fight is that much harder. This book, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Peel, John Lennon, Dave Dillinger, & many more go down as great revolutionaries for their times and this book, despite being radical in many ways, expounds much profound wisdom.

At the end of the book is a reprint of the pamphlet "F**k The System," which was all about dropping out, as in Leary's "Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out," it is about living without money, finding free items and ways to survive. I looked it up on amazon and found only one used copy available through a private seller. Would you believe he/she is asking $750.00 for it!!! Abbie said anyone who tries to make money off it is a communist, lol

This was the first writings of Hoffman I had ever read. It rewrites history and covers things I had never been expossed to. It is a dark book with energy and spunk. It reflects the things we are going through now with the same type of goverment tricks. We must take back of country from the frat boys who are running it into the ground.

In his first book, Abbie Hoffman gave us an almost comical view of the revolution which he helped to jumpstart through the late 1960s. Through the humour, which has always been one of Abbie's strongpoints, you do see the sincerity of the man, and his cause (mainly civil rights, and anti-war) as well as his idea of what america (always spelled with a little "A") is supposed to be. I can't help but wonder though...what the movie was like.

Abbie knew what he was fighting against ... but I don't think he had a clue about what he was fighting for.

I admire anyone willing to get in the ring so to speak... But anyone who's hero is Fidel Castro and also believes in "individual freedom" needs to have his head examined.

Abby thought that freedom is the freedom for the ego to move through life without obstruction. Needless to say, this is a child's view of freedom.
He never understood that in life one must learn reckon with sail, wind and tide ... and freedom is only found when one learns to do that.

Abbie merely spit into the wind... and got angry when it "had the audacity" to blow back on him.

If he had lived longer, perhaps he would have learned to pick and choose his fights with a little more discrimination.