Just finished it; a wonderful tracing of several generations the cultural, spiritual, and intellectual underpinnings of the hippie movement. A fine reminder of why we were right all along......
In the acknowledgements, McNally says it is "the fourth and last part" of his life's work, a history of the post-war (mostly) American counterculture. Having now read the 2nd (A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead) and the 4th and loved both, I ordered the one copy held in any Illinois library of the 1st (Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America*) and, no library owning it, from Amazon the 3rd (On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom).
*Garcia worshiped Kerouac and loved Dennis's bio; that's how he came to be their publicist.
Peter