‘An Affirmation, Not a Protest’: How the First Be-In Changed the World

‘An Affirmation, Not a Protest’: How the First Be-In Changed the World

Author and historian Dennis McNally has written extensively on the Grateful Dead, including the 2002 authorized biography “A Long Strange Trip.” In his new book, “The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties,” McNally (who also served as the Dead’s publicist in the 1980s and 1990s) looks at the larger cultural moment that the band was part of. This excerpt looks at the story of the first Be-In, which featured a perf…