Join us at PAMLA 2025 for a Thursday Spotlight with historian and cultural critic Dennis McNally, who will present “From Bohemians to Hippies: An Exploration” on Thursday, November 20 (3:00–4:00 pm) in InterContinental Ballroom C. McNally will discuss his new book The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties (2025), an encyclopedic re-visioning of American arts and culture through the innovations of the countercultural writers, artists, and composers of the 1950s and 1960s. These creators sought not simply to reshape the practices of art but to reimagine culture and consciousness in ways that have become even more urgently relevant as we confront the challenges of our own historical moment.
Dennis McNally is a historian, author, and cultural critic best known as the longtime publicist and authorized biographer of the Grateful Dead. He earned his PhD in American History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with his dissertation becoming his first book, Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, The Beat Generation, and America. His bestselling history A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead established him as one of the leading chroniclers of American counterculture. McNally’s other works include On Highway 61: Music, Race, and the Evolution of Cultural Freedom and The Last Great Dream. He lives in San Francisco and continues to write and lecture on music, race, and cultural history.
RSVPs requested but not required to attend this exciting Thursday Spotlight; please log into pamla.ballastacademic.com and register via the Registration tab so we can better anticipate attendance numbers.