Background
Hoffman was born November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to John Hoffman and Florence Schanberg. Hoffman was raised in a middle-class household and had two younger siblings.
(New condition.)
New condition.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446689998/?tag=2022091-20
( The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman tells the story of o...)
The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman tells the story of one of America's most influential and imaginative dissidents, a major figure in the 1960s counterculture and anti-war movement who remained a dedicated political organizer right up until his death in 1989. With his unique brand of humor, wit, and energetic narrative, Abbie Hoffman describes the history of his times and provides a first-hand account of such memorable actions as the "levitation" of the Pentagon, the dropping of dollar bills onto the New York Stock Exchange floor, and the Chicago 8 Trial, which followed the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention, as well as his friendships with Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Allen Ginsberg, and many others. Originally published in 1980 as Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, this memoir has been out of print for nearly 10 years. This edition includes a new selection of photographs chosen by his widow, Johanna Lawrenson, as well as a new afterword by Howard Zinn celebrating Hoffman's enduring activist legacy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568581971/?tag=2022091-20
(A driving force behind the social revolution of the 1960s...)
A driving force behind the social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s Hoffman inspired a generation to challenge the status quo Meant as a practical guide for the aspiring hippie Steal This Book captures Hoffman s puckish tone and became a cult classic with over 200 000 copies sold Outrageously illustrated by R Crumb it nevertheless conveys a serious message to all would be revolutionaries You don t have to take it anymore All Power to the Imagination was his credo Abbie was the best Studs Terkel Classic Handbook of Survival and Warfare As Relevant Now as When Firstublished Available now for the first time in trade paperback with a newesign and introduction by activists Al Giordano and Lisa Fithian Perhapshe single most important piece of pop culture to come out of the Vietnam era teal This Book was originally written in 1970 and rejected by more thanhirty publisher before it was self published to great acclaim andontroversy An alternative guide to life covering everything fromhoplifting and growing marijuana to effective demonstration and defendingourself in a court of law this outlaw s handbook will provide freshnspiration to those who lived through the sixties and those protesting todaygainst global conglomerates and government bureaucracies Hoffman s timelessefiance is a pertinent reminder that no matter what the struggle freedoms always worth fighting for
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156858217X/?tag=2022091-20
(Excerpts from Revolution for the Hell of It, Woodstock Na...)
Excerpts from Revolution for the Hell of It, Woodstock Nation, and Steal This Book share the dissident author's dissatisfaction with the status quo and his aspirations for freedom and justice
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0941423271/?tag=2022091-20
( While the supremely popular Steal This Book is a guide ...)
While the supremely popular Steal This Book is a guide to living outside the establishment, Revolution for the Hell of It is a chronicle of Abbie Hoffman's radical escapades that doubles as a guidebook for today's social and political activist. Hoffman pioneered the use of humor, theater, and shock value to drive home his points, and in Revolution for the Hell of It he gives firsthand accounts of his legendary adventures, from the activism that led to the founding of the Youth International Partyor "Yippies!to the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests ("a Perfect Mess") that resulted in his conviction as part of the Chicago Seven. Also chronicled are the mass demonstrations he led in which over fifty thousand people attempted to levitate the Pentagon using psychic energy, and the time he threw fistfuls of dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and watched the traders scramble. With antiwar sentiment once again in a furor and an incendiary political climate not seen since the book's original printing, Abbie Hoffman's voice is more essential than ever.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1560256907/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075PZX7C9/?tag=2022091-20
(Both a serious and satirical response to mandatory drug t...)
Both a serious and satirical response to mandatory drug testing in the workplace, this book addresses the reliability of various testing procedures, discusses misconceptions concerning urine testing and its constitutionality, and offers ways to beat the test
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140104003/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MBM5JQ/?tag=2022091-20
(In a lively yet reflective memoir on the turbulent '60s, ...)
In a lively yet reflective memoir on the turbulent '60s, Hoffman candidly traces his career from civil-rights activist, to underground fugitive, to infamous court jester of the 'Chicago Seven' conspiracy trial
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0399505032/?tag=2022091-20
( In March, 1974, facing drug charges in a case in which ...)
In March, 1974, facing drug charges in a case in which he claims he was innocent, Abbie Hoffman, one of the Chicago Seven, became a fugitive, forced to leave behind Anita, his wife of eight years, and america, their four year old son. During this time, they could only communicate through letters. Letters from the Underground includes all the letters sent between Abbie and Anita during the first year of their separation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B9SSYGE/?tag=2022091-20
activist Revolutionary anarchist
Hoffman was born November 30, 1936, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to John Hoffman and Florence Schanberg. Hoffman was raised in a middle-class household and had two younger siblings.
He was educated at Brandeis University and the University of California, Berkeley. He received psychology degrees from both Brandeis University (1959) and the University of California, Berkeley (1960)
Like so many other activists of the 1966, Hoffman was radicalized by participating in the civil rights movement.
Among other activities, he founded a store-Liberty House-to sell products manufactured by co-operatives of poor people in Mississippi.
In mid-decade he turned his attention to the war in Vietnam, which heated up just when Black Power was driving whites out of black freedom organizations.
Hoffman's unique contribution, with Jerry Rubin, was to unite political activism with the emergent counter-culture. As a rule the two movements were antithetical, politics drawing young men and women into public affairs, the counter-culture attracting others to the private pleasures of rock music, drugs, indigency, and liberated sex. Hoffman made activism glamorous, so to speak, by staging such media events as throwing money onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and wearing an American flag shirt on television.
Hoffman's theory was that by ridiculing the symbols of authority one weakened its power as well. Deprived of legitimacy, Wall Street and Washington might wither away, or perhaps they would become so frail as to be easily overthrown. These hopes appear more unlikely in retrospect than they did at the time, when authority seemed discredited and many young people believed that the revolution was at hand.
Hoffman's Youth International Party, formed in 1968, was not so much an organization as a way of life. It enabled counter-culturists, known as hippies in their passive state, to express themselves politically without having to elect officers, pay dues, attend meetings, or perform any of the tiresome work associated with real parties.
The yippies, as Hoffman's followers were called, assembled at irregular intervals to hold Festivals of Life. These gatherings featured rock music, guerrilla theater, poetry reading, obscene language, and other activities meant to delight the young and aggravate the old.
Their most publicized effort took place at the Democratic National Convention of 1968.
In cooperation with the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam some 2, 500 yippies danced, sang, smoked marijuana, and advertised the virtues of their own candidate for president, a live pig named Pigasus. Poet Allen Ginsberg chanted mantras for peace. Hoffman inscribed dirty words on his forehead. All this inflamed Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, whose police attacked the yippies with clubs and tear gas, then arrested many for having provoked uniformed officers to riot.
The result was a famous trial when eight demonstration leaders-including Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden of Students for a Democratic Society, and Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers-were indicted for conspiring to incite these riots. Most of the defendants abused and ridiculed Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation), destroying his composure. He had Seale bound and gagged, then declared a mistrial in Seale's case. The other seven were found guilty of various offenses, but as the trial had been a farce their convictions were not sustained. This was the height of Hoffman's celebrity.
With the war in Vietnam winding down and the turbulent 19606 giving way to quieter times Hoffman found himself at loose ends.
On August 28, 1973, he was arrested for possession of a large quantity of cocaine. Claiming to have been framed, Hoffman jumped bail and went underground.
The next seven years were busy and productive ones for Hoffman, whom the police could not seem to find even though he granted interviews to national magazines, served as travel editor of Crawdaddy magazine, and published two books and some 35 articles.
In 1980 he surfaced and disclosed that he had been living for the previous four years in Thousand Islands, New York, under the name of Barry Freed. As environmental activist "Freed, " minus the long hair and beard of his yippie days, he had appeared on local television and radio, been commended by the governor of New York, testified before a U. S. Senate subcommittee, and been appointed to a federal water resources commission.
After serving a year in jail Hoffman returned to Thousand Islands where, as Barry Freed, he continued to campaign for the environment between engagements as a speaker on college campuses.
Hoffman's place in history will depend upon how much weight is given to his activities in the 1966.
Besides providing the young with a good deal of entertainment, Hoffman wrote extensively on behalf of social change. His Revolution for the Hell of It (1968) more or less seriously advocated transforming society by means of psychedelic drugs, rock bands, sexual freedom, communes, and the like.
Similar themes informed many of his other books, which collectively sold over three million copies.
He also figured in some of the most important events of the period.
These included not only the Chicago demonstrations in 1968, but the earlier March on the Pentagon, October 21, 1967. At that event some 75, 000 demonstrators gathered in Washington, many following Hoffman's lead in attempting to levitate the great military headquarters building.
Although there is some controversy concerning Hoffman's death in 1989, it seems certain that he killed himself with a lethal combination of 150 pheno-barbital pills and alcohol.
Abbie Hoffman was a founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies), who was known for his successful media events.
He was active in the American civil rights movement before turning his energies to protesting the Vietnam War and the American economic and political system. His acts of protest blurred the line between political action and guerrilla theatre, and they utilized absurdist humour to great effect.
Whether Hoffman's efforts did anything to shorten the war is doubtful. The methods he employed, though they generated an immense volume of publicity, were short-lived, as were the theories he advocated in connection with them.
Yet, whatever the lasting results, if any, of his stunts, Hoffman is likely to be remembered as one of the boldest and most imaginative spokesmen for the counter-culture in its days of glory.
(A driving force behind the social revolution of the 1960s...)
( The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman tells the story of o...)
(Both a serious and satirical response to mandatory drug t...)
( While the supremely popular Steal This Book is a guide ...)
( In March, 1974, facing drug charges in a case in which ...)
(In a lively yet reflective memoir on the turbulent '60s, ...)
(Excerpts from Revolution for the Hell of It, Woodstock Na...)
(New condition.)
Abbie Hoffman co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). The Yippie "New Nation" concept called for the creation of alternative, counterculture institutions. He believed these cooperative institutions and a radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system. The goal was a decentralized, collective, anarchistic nation rooted in the borderless hippie counterculture and its communal ethos. Abbie Hoffman wrote:
"We shall not defeat America by organizing a political party. We shall do it by building a new nation – a nation as rugged as the marijuana leaf. "
The Yippies often paid tribute to rock 'n' roll and irreverent pop-culture figures such as the Marx Brothers, James Dean and Lenny Bruce.
The Yippies were the first on the New Left to make a point of exploiting mass media. Colorful, theatrical Yippie actions were tailored to attract media coverage.
Quotations:
In 1987 Hoffman summed up his views:
"You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a CIA that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home. "
He was a member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Quotes from others about the person
Diggers co-founder Peter Coyote explained:
"Abbie, who was a friend of mine, was always a media junky. We explained everything to those guys, and they violated everything we taught them. Abbie went back, and the first thing he did was publish a book, with his picture on it, that blew the hustle of every poor person on the Lower East Side by describing every free scam then current in New York, which were then sucked dry by disaffected kids from Scarsdale. "
In 1998, Peter Coyote opined:
"The FBI couldn't infiltrate us. We did everything anonymously, and we did everything for nothing, because we wanted our actions to be authentic. It's the mistake that Abbie Hoffman made. He came out, he studied with us, we taught him everything, and then he went back and wrote a book called Free, and he put his name on it! He set himself up to be a leader of the counterculture, and he was undone by that. Big mistake. "
In 1960, Hoffman married Sheila Karklin and had two children: Andrew (born 1960) and Amy (1962–2007), who later went by the name Ilya. They divorced in 1966.
In 1967, Hoffman married Anita Kushner in Manhattan's Central Park. They had one son, America Hoffman, deliberately named using a lowercase "a" to indicate both patriotism and non-jingoistic intent. Although Hoffman and Kushner were effectively separated after Hoffman became a fugitive, starting in 1973, they were not formally divorced until 1980. He subsequently fell in love with Johanna Lawrenson in 1974, while a fugitive.
