The True Believer

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.Completely relevant and essential for understand...

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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.Completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today, The True Believer is a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) was self-educated and lived the life of a drifter through the 1930s. After Pearl Harbor, he worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for twenty-five years. He is the author of ten books, including "The Passionate State of Mind", "The Ordeal of Change", and "The Temper of Our Time". He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983 and died later ...

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Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) was self-educated and lived the life of a drifter through the 1930s. After Pearl Harbor, he worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco for twenty-five years. He is the author of ten books, including "The Passionate State of Mind", "The Ordeal of Change", and "The Temper of Our Time". He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1983 and died later that year.

Preface xi
Part 1. The Appeal of Mass Movements
I. The Desire for Change 3
II. The Desire for Substitutes 12
III. The Interchangeability of Mass Movements 16
Part 2. The Potential Converts
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Preface xi
Part 1. The Appeal of Mass Movements
I. The Desire for Change 3
II. The Desire for Substitutes 12
III. The Interchangeability of Mass Movements 16
Part 2. The Potential Converts
IV. The Role of the Undesirables in Human Affairs 24
V. The Poor 26
The New Poor 26
The Abjectly Poor 27
The Free Poor 31
The Creative Poor 34
The Unified Poor 34
VI. Misfits 46
VII. The Inordinately Selfish 48
VIII. The Ambitious Facing Unlimited Opportunities 49
IX. Minorities 50
X. The Bored 51
XI. The Sinners 53
Part 3. United Action and Self-sacrifice
XII. Preface 58
XIII. Factors Promoting Self-sacrifice 62
Identification with a Collective Whole 62
Make-believe 66
Deprecation of the Present 68
"Things Which Are Not" 76
Doctrine 79
Fanaticism 83
Mass Movements and Armies 88
XIV. Unifying Agents 91
Hatred 91
Imitation 101
Persuasion and Coercion 105
Leadership 111
Action 120
Suspicion 124
The Effects of Unification 126
Part 4. Beginning and End
XV. Men of Words 130
XVI. The Fanatics 143
XVII. The Practical Men of Action 147
XVIII. Good and Bad Mass Movements 153
The Unattractiveness and Sterility of the Active Phase 153
Some Factors Which Determine the Length of the Active Phase 157
Useful Mass Movements 162
Notes
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