The True Believer, Eric Hoffer
The True Believer, Eric Hoffer
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The True Believer
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements

Author: Eric Hoffer

Narrator: Fred Sanders

Unabridged: 5 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/14/2023

Synopsis

“Its theme is political fanaticism, with which it deals severely and brilliantly.” —New YorkerThe famous bestseller with “concise insight into what drives the mind of the fanatic and the dynamics of a mass movement” (Wall Street Journal) by the legendary San Francisco longshoreman.A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophical treatises in his spare time while living in the railroad yards. The True Believer—the first and most famous of his books—was made into a bestseller when President Eisenhower cited it during one of the earliest television press conferences.Called a “brilliant and original inquiry” and “a genuine contribution to our social thought” by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., this landmark in the field of social psychology is completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today as it delivers a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one.

About Eric Hoffer

Born in New York City, Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) was self-educated. He worked in restaurants, as a migrant fieldworker, and as a gold prospector. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for twenty-five years. The author of more than ten books, including The Passionate State of Mind, The Ordeal of Change, and The Temper of Our Time, Hoffer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sam on March 10, 2024

The True Believer is a perfect manifestation of the principles upon which my thinking is founded. How easy one finds it to wag a mirth-filled finger at those who believe the earth is flat or that men can get pregnant. What foolishness we decree, quick take their money before they build a bridge to A......more

Goodreads review by Jamie on July 04, 2023

This book possesses a terrible timelessness. Though written a few years after World War II to examine the factors that led people to embrace fascism and communism, it still rings true for our times, clearly explaining the reasons why so many people have embraced anger, intolerance, and a foolish wis......more

Goodreads review by Emmanuel on June 25, 2023

Eric Hoffer’s True Believer (written in 1951) withstands time for its relevance and significance in deciphering the essence of mass movements. I ve tried to summarize below some key concepts of this dense document: The core of this treatise is that all mass movements generate in their adherents a re......more

Goodreads review by Murtaza on October 10, 2019

In trying to understand why this book has been so popular for so long, I can only conclude that its because it is infinitely useful for political purposes. This is basically a book of musings about what drives the average follower of a mass ideological movement, as well as the life-cycles and nature......more

Goodreads review by James on March 04, 2008

Outstanding. A concise and astute portrait of the personality type that is drawn to authoritarian institutions, whether political or religious. Hoffer makes an excellent case that the mass movements - the fascists, the communists, and the various brands of religious fundamentalists, that have caused......more

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