Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s

At the end of the 1960s, the mysterious Tom For蓷de suddenly appeared, insinuated himself into the top echelons of the political counterculture, and assumed control of the Underground Press Syndicate, a coalition of newspapers across the country. As he weathered government surveillance and harassment, he embarked on a landmark court battle to obtain White House press credentials. But his outrageous stunts--pieing Congressional panelists, stealing presidential portraits, and picking fights with other activists--led to charges that he was an agent provocateur. He claimed that he was just trying to "advance international surrealism."

For蓷de saw a new path forward--marijuana, he believed, could be used as a tool for cultural and economic revolution. What Playboy had done for sex, High Times would do for marijuana, dragging a taboo subject into the mainstream. Bankrolled by drug-dealing profits, the magazine was a travelogue of globe-trotting adventure and a wellspring of news about "the business" from a worldwide network of sources. With regular updates on legislation, entrepreneurial advice, and charts of price fluctuations, the glossy magazine simultaneously legitimized and commodified drug culture. Its editorials--which warned against corporate interests descending upon legalized weed, and international drug wars serving as cover for imperialist adventures--would prove to be prophetic. But High Times soon threatened to become nothing more than the "hip capitalism" that he'd railed against for so long, and For蓷de felt his enemies closing in.

Agents of Chaos is a fast-paced tale about attacks on journalism, disinformation campaigns, governmental secrecy, corporatism, and political factionalism. The tragedies and triumphs of Tom For蓷de mirror the cultural transformations of 1970s America, wrought by forces that continue to clash in the spaces between unrest, activism, and power.