I really enjoyed this one, haven't read anything about this before. This seemed well researched and a lot of primary source material was used. Definitely recommend this to anyone interested in the past sordid history of the CIA and US government.

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**TL;DR**: Tons of sources, lots of infuriating facts.
**Source**: NetGalley - Thank you to the publisher!!

**Readability**: Incredibly readable, I flew through this one.
**Scope:** This focuses in on the drug use, abuse, and absolute negligence of these folks.
**Sources:** A full 35% of the back end of this was notes, sources, appendixes, etc.
****

**Thoughts:**

There is a lot of conspiracy theories out there about MKULTRA and the CIA. Most of what I’ve heard is what the show Stranger Things was based on - psychics, remote viewing, etc. Project Mind Control however shows us what is easily accessible in the records and interviews that remain and that was wild drug abuse.

Project Mind control breaks down the situation, the reasoning, and then the actions that these folks took during the lifespan of this project. The bulk of the book focuses on the abuse of LSD and the experiments the department performed. Many of these were on unwilling, unaware, or unwell individuals. There was abuse of personal and public trust, and more than a few deaths as a result.

We also look at possibly linked crimes and events. Credit where credit is due though, our author makes a point of focusing on only what he has sources for and even goes out of the way to advise the reader against falling for the conspiracy theories and wild stories that float around with no proof.

This one was quick, it was easy, and it really is an approachable book on the topic while also infuriating the reader. If you’re interested in or you have a friend or family member who is, I’d recommend it!

A deep dive into the CIA using American citizens to conduct testing on them using psychological and/or chemical warfare and how it was covered up and then exposed. A few other controversies involving Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA are also discussed. Unfortunately not surprising but hopefully making it more visible will help prevent similar things in the future.

*3.5 rounded up to 4 for NetGalley*

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan for the eARC of this book!

This was a very in-depth look at MKULTRA, the CIA, and the kinds of things they got away with while no one was watching. It was interesting, easy to follow, and chock full of fascinating details, interviews, and insight. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to people with an interest in learning more about the CIA and MKULTRA.

In this wild inside scoop on MKULTRA, the CIA’s secret mind control project, John Lisle uses never-before-seen testimony from people involved with the project to bring it to life. Following Sidney Gottlieb, a top CIA chemist, as he worked on these dangerous, deadly, and secret experiments, the book tracks the horrors of these questionably ethical (at best) experiments in the name of national defense and the impact that Gottlieb had on other CIA projects including the assassinations of foreign leaders. Bringing these harrowing and complex depositions about MKULTRA to light, Lisle delves into the stories of MKULTRA’s victims and the reasonings behind the project and its successful coverup. Brutal and detailed, this is a morbidly fascinating book that readers will struggle to put down. The details are absolutely incredible, and the previously unpublished depositions and documents really bring the complicated facts and stories of MKULTRA to life. Readers will be unable to put this complicated and powerful new history book down, and Lisle has done a brilliant job researching and explaining the scientific nuances and information behind the project. Fascinating, complicated, and occasionally challenging, readers will enjoy the wild and detailed exploration of MKULTRA that Lisle offers in this powerful new release.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, this book was wild. MKUltra was something I'd only briefly heard about. This book was well written, informative and well researched.

This is a historic overview of the absolutely bonkers experimentation the CIA got up to in the midcentury, as they rushed to outpace and outwit the Soviets. If you try to tell your friends about some of these experiments (like remote-controlling living animals, which, even more unbelievably, sounded like it kind of worked!), you are going to sound like you’re the one on LSD.

But underneath the splashy, bizarre details is a more tragic story. There were people who took their own lives after being drugged by CIA employees without realizing it. Bold, haphazard experiments were conducted in psych wards, prisons, and rehab facilities on already vulnerable populations. This is a cautionary tale about what happens when a government agency thinks it is above the law.

I was absolutely riveted by this book, and if you’re into twentieth-century history, you will be too.

Fiction might be my love, but history is my jam.

MK Ultra is something that interests me, but admittedly I've only watched docs about it on TV.

This has been quite a read and left me with plenty of thoughts about how the world around us is more vivid than fiction.

Thanks for the read Netgalley and St. Martins Press.

Unfortunately I didn't end up finishing this, I found it interesting but it was hard to hold my attention.

This factual history text reads more like a dystopian horror as John Lisle lays out how the CIA spent their time during the Cold War, taking advantage of no oversight, a large budget, and rampant paranoia to do whatever the hell they wanted. And what they wanted was to develop a drug that allowed them the power of mind control. They ended up with LSD - and a lot of counter-culture songs inspired by the effects - and along the way got a lot of people hurt or killed.

Lisle does an excellent job showing the sources for everything, and wow, even with some materials redacted, hidden, or outright destroyed, there is a ton of information out there, if you know where to look. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of DISinformation, which he is careful to point out, and beg people to not trust everything they read on the internet.

Non-fiction fans - Project Mind Control is unhinged!
Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy for feature.
CIA chemistry whiz Sidney Gottleib had a vision. Well, many visions. Of finding methods to control people's minds through various fairly nefarious methods. LSD experiments and MKULTRA are just some of the well-known results. But author John Lisle delves deep into events that MKULTRA and the like could be attributed to.
This is a book full of "I thought I knew about this, but I so did NOT". So many case studies presented that absolutely do not feel like real-life.
Project Mind Control is truly a read that's stranger than fiction.
Recommended!
Released on May 20.

MKUltra has always been a morbid curiosity to me ever since I heard about all of the crazy conspiracy theories about it. (Or is it crazy at all...? Hmm...) This book was very well researched and the evidence told in an enthralling manner.

It is always interesting to read more about the MKUltra space. This book had a lot of new and interesting points on the topic. I really enjoyed this book.

This was a fantastic nonfiction book about the CIA's mind control program. An detailed in depth look and very well written. I had trouble putting it down. Almost read like a work of fiction and very hard to believe this actually went on.

John Lisle takes us inside the CIA and provides us with example after example of the many devious practices that the CIA used as they were in a race understand mind control.

Programs started by the CIA, and funded surreptitiously under different names, did experiments on other agents, prisoners, gangsters, and just regular people, all done to see if they could understand how to control interrogations, behavior, and people’s mind. Drugs of course were part of the experimenting, and sometimes things went very wrong and people had terrible reactions to the drugs and even died.

The book is harrowing, and I am not sure if these practices are outlawed. I can only imagine that many countries use the same tools and even more.

Read it to see what goes on. I thought it interesting.

This book started off really strong for me, I raced through the first half and read like fiction. I didn't know much about MK Ultra and I thought the book gave a really great overview of the project and the general institutional culture surrounding the project at the time. It was a really interesting choice to frame the novel around the lawyer's interactions during deposition, and one that paid off for me initially but then grew a bit old as I progressed through the novel. I found myself feeling as if I was learning more about the attorneys involved in the MK Ultra litigation than what the testimony was. And, as an attorney myself, I just wasn't convinced that the attorneys were as relevant to the story as they were framed to be. In any event, there is much to be learned from this book as an intro the topic, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who already knows much about MK Ultra and the government's experiments with LSD and people during that time period. I left this book just wishing it provided a little more factual information-- although I understand that a point of the book is that it is difficult to do so because of how deliberately the records of these experiments were destroyed and how obfuscated the information we do have is. The book lost me a bit in the last 1/3, when it veered off into conspiracy theories and cults. I think I understand what the author was trying to do, but it was poorly executed and not very cohesive with the earlier portions of the novel. Overall, though, I really enjoyed this one and subsequently purchased it as a gift.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. I’d heard of MKULTRA and knew a little bit about it; this book was very in-depth as to what happened when it first started along with the lengths to which they carried out the missions and other happenings in the CIA. It was interesting to read about the various gadgets that were used. It’s crazy to think there was really no oversight on MKULTRA and other projects happening in the CIA. If you’re into CIA history and the like, this book is right up your alley.

This book details the MKULTRA initiative from its infancy. It details the implications of a man given the power and control of mind and mood-altering drugs. This was fascinating, well-researched, and more than a little heartbreaking.

I’ve long been fascinated by the CIA’s secret MK-ULTRA experiments. PROJECT MIND CONTROL is the most current examination of this disturbing period of history. The repercussions of this federally-sanctioned criminal behavior continue to this day.

The research is meticulous and extensive, but we never get mired in dry details. The writing is accessible, easy to read, and thoroughly engaging.

*Thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the free eARC, provided via NetGalley.*

Project Mind Control is a book focused mainly on the CIA’s MKULTRA, which was a project to discredit individuals, elicit information and implant suggestions. Eventually came to encompass 149 sub projects and was simply a way to get people to talk or prevent them from talking.

A few things I learned: Lobotomy was considered by the CIA as a way to complete its goals. They developed LSD and then tried that as the first method of mind control. The CIA used universities to conduct research when the government wouldn’t - but many didn’t know the CIA was even involved. It was also interested in electroshock therapy because of the reported ability to induce amnesia. The CIA coordinated many assassination attempts or ways to debilitate people and get them out of power. This is just scratching the surface of the topics in this book.

Signs of the project’s demise soon became apparent around 1963 and how legal it was. Over its 10 year lifespan, MKULTRA spent $10 million at various institutions and didn’t really learn much related to its goal in the end. MKULTRA was not a fluke, but the norm in a system that lacks meaningful oversight and lets perpetrators of abuses avoid accountability for their actions. The pendulum swings between security and liberty.

This book was very interesting and informative overall. I did think the end portion went on for too long and I wished there had been more about the tests at universities. But in particular the world we live in today, understanding our history can hopefully help to right the track (at least one day).