Ruined Time is a fascinating memoir of the 1950s and the Beat, that pivotal decade of the 20thCentury in which a Beat Generation revised the awareness of consciousness while a deceptive military-industrial complex not only corporatized the Cold War but planted the seeds of today's freakish globalism.

"Ruined Time is the book within the book, the history within the mystery, the mythology of the '50s, the so-called Beat Generation. Briggs reveals the real deal as a participant in that confounding history. His work is a remarkable embodiment of the personal as the political; a brave demonstration of tough insight, survival and triumph. Briggs brings it all into play - not as a fantasy or mythoblathering hype, but as the ongoing and complex struggle all dissident spirits had to (and have to) contend with in dark yet illuminated days."
David Meltzer

"Ruined Time is a knockout ...a mesmerizing memoir that sees through the scene and peers into the soul of an age ...evoking a transformational time in American history .. clear-eyed nostalgia, critical and unflinching, yet searching and sympathetic ... a wild, wonderful ride."

"In Ruined Time ... we get a full-blooded, many-sided account of the cultural sources that gave rise to the uniquely Beat outlook on life, which, in turn, enhances our appreciation of the themes of Beat literature. For anyone teaching a course on Twentieth Century American Cultural History, Briggs' book would be an excellent way to bring the period and literature alive for today's students."
Clayton Morgareidge, Professor Emeritus, Lewis and Clark College